NOW and THEN ... A Nostalgic Look At The Past !
By Aletha Wiehl
Spring is here . Early horse shows are upon us . And our beloved horse from Tennessee will steal the spotlight time and again . What a phenomenal rise to popularity this breed is having in the Pacific Northwest ! But , it should be expected .
This has been horse country for a long , long time . Some of the earliest traces of horses on the contient are found here . And here as elsewhere , horses have played a vital part in the history and development of the country . But times and needs change , sometimes slowly , sometimes very quickly .
Today , less than one hour ’ s drive from my home , one can be in the center of the Hanford Atomic Energy plant . There are those alive today who remember that same country as the scene of the last big wild horse round-up in Washington .
Some years ago , as I sat by a fireside listening to one of the cowboys on that round-up recount some of his experiences , I realized that I was listening to a part of our history and jotted down some notes , following as closely as I could his words . Here is a peek into our very recent past :
“ We started out from Euphrata , circled around Crab Creek , Beverly , Waterville , and then ended up back at Euphrata . The first night out we camped on the Wahluke slope . That first night we were mighty short of horses — not even one horse apiece . Some of the boys had some classy-looking , fullblooded horses . Most of them gave out pretty early . Some of the fellows took some feed up to the basin in Saddle Mountain , camped there over night , and rounded up two or three thousand horses . We all had horses from then on .
“ Bill McCarty was buying horses and we rigged up a corral to keep some of the choice ones in . ( We treasure some old pictures showing these . Some pretty good looking horses too .) During the night , some one started the horses milling , and when word reached those of us camped directly below the corral , we broke some speed records moving camp . Luckily , they didn ’ t break through but continued circling — much to the relief of Mc Carty , who had paid for the animals .
“ This McCarty was an ex-prize fighter , and weighed a good 200 pounds . We had a raft to cross the creek , and whenever McCarty stepped on the raft it began to go down . He jumped on one time when it was fairly well loaded and some of us fellows holding the tow rope on the bang gave the rope a quick jerk and they all went off like a bunch of bullfrogs . McCarty got up soaking wet and full of fight . Then he began to laugh and joined us to try the stunt on the next bunch . One fellow , named George , had been strutting all over camp in a brand new buckskin suit and handsome chaps . One pull on the seagrass ropes , and he too joined the swimmers .
“ We narly hanged a man on that trip , too . A lot of people came along to see the fun . There were some newspaper men from the East and some wealthy people in their buggies , among them some women . Well , Jim Shephard heard some fellow make a nasty remark about one of the women and jumped him about it . One thing led to another , and two or three of the boys decided a man who had no more respect for women than that coyote deserved to be hanged . So we started out to do it .
“ But we couldn ’ t ’ find anything to hang him to — this being sagebrush country . So we decided to drown him . We tied some boulders about the size of a wash tub to his neck and feet and carried him out into the Columbia . He was yelling and bawling by this time . But we finally concluded any one as low down ornery as he was would pollute the river for years to come and postponed the demise till we could find a tree . Never did find out if that fellow got strung up .”
Well , that was our spring “ horse show ” not so long ago ! One thing it did have in common with the show of 1964 , the test then as now of a good horse is “ can he get the job done ?” As the jobs differ , the requirements differ . Yet , it is quite possible that the Walking Horse with his wonderful versatility and stamina would have found a welcome place with the “ working cowboy ” of former years . Want proof ? Here it is .
On the Jack Jeffries ’ wheat ranch in Grass Valley , Oregon , ( the spot where Dr . and Mrs . Roberts purchased THE FLYING DOLLAR ) there is a compact , steel-muscled , working saddle horse , a registered Tennessee Walking Horse . In the morning he is saddled and ready with the slip of a bridle on his head to bring in a good-sized herd of cattle or round-up and bring in two or three dozen horses . Yet this same horse can , and will , perform intricate , rhythmic changes of leads , side-passes etc . in the best Continental haute ecole manner . He can shine in the show ring in pleasure and working stock horse classes . He can run fast as an arrow , or canter all day in the shade of an old apple tree . He and another Walking Horse on the place have been used to rope deer — yes , you read it right . If you think that kind of roping does not take a little doing . just try it sometime !
When it comes to roping , Jack apologized for another Walking Horse . It seems the horse bucked . Well , there is a limit to what even a good-natured Walking Horse will
16 VOICE OF THE TENNESSEE WALKING HORSE