Wagons West Chronicles October Issue 2016 October Issue | Page 3
Wagons West Chronicles
October 2016
THE ROUND-UP III
Saddling Fresh Horses.
Author’s Note: this is part three
of a five part series by Theodore
Roosevelt about his experiences on
round-ups during the time he was a
cattle rancher in the Dakota
Territory. I know, originally we said
this would be a four-part series. But
Theodore Roosevelt had a lot more
to say about the subject than we originally realized.
The method of work is simple.
The mess-wagons and loose horses,
after breaking camp in the morning, move on in a straight line for
some few miles, going into camp
again before midday. And the day
herd, consisting of all the cattle
that have been found far off their
range, and which are to be brought
back there, and of any others that
it is necessary to gather, follows on
afterwards.
Meanwhile the cowboys scatter
out and drive in all the cattle from
the country round about, going perhaps ten or fifteen miles back from
the line of march, and meeting at
the place where camp has already
been pitched. The wagons always
keep some little distance from one
another, and the saddle-bands do
the same, so that the horses may not
get mixed.
It is rather picturesque to see
the four-horse teams filing down at
a trot through a pass among the
butted — the saddle-bands being
driven along at a smart pace to one
side or behind, the teamsters
cracking their whips, and the
horse-wranglers calling and shouting as they ride rapidly from side to
side behind the horses, urging on
the stragglers by dexterous touches
with the knotted ends of their long
lariats that are left trailing from the
saddle.
The country driven over is very
rough, and it is often necessary to
double up teams and put on eight
horsed to each wagon in going up
an unusually steep pitch, or hauling through a deep mud-hole, or
over a river crossing where there is
quicksand.
The speed and thoroughness
with which a country can be worked
depends, of course, very largely
upon the number of riders. Ours is
probably about an average roundup as regards size. The last spring I
was out, there were half a dozen
wagons along; the saddle bands
numbered about a hundred each;
and the morning we started, sixty
3
men in the saddle
splashed across the
shallow ford of the
river that divided the
plain where we had
camped from the valley
of the long winding
creek up which we were
first to work.
In the morning, the
cook is preparing
breakfast long before
the first glimmer of
dawn. As soon as it is
ready, probably about 3 o’clock, he
utters a long-drawn shout, and all
the sleepers feel it is time to be up
on the instant, for they know there
can be no such thing as delay on the
round-up, under penalty of being
set afoot.
Accordingly, they bundle out,
rubbing their eyes and yawning,
draw on their boots and trousers, - if
they have taken the latter off, - roll
up and cord their bedding, and usually without any attempt at washing
crowd over to the little smoldering
fire, which is placed in a hole dug in
the ground, so that there may be no
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risk of its spreading. The men are
rarely very hungry at breakfast, and
it is a meal that has to be eaten in
shortest order, so it is perhaps the
least important.
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grasps a tin cup and plate from the
mess-box, pours out his tea or coffee, with sugar, but of course no
milk, helps himself to one or two of
the biscuits that have been baked in
a Dutch oven, and perhaps also to a
slice of the fat pork swimming in
the grease of the frying-pan, ladles
himself out some beans, if there are
any, and squats down on the ground
to eat his breakfast.
The meal is not an elaborate one;
nevertheless a man will have to hurry
if he wishes to eat it before hearing
the foreman sing out, “Come, boys,
catch your horses”; when he must Roped!
score of riders in each, separate and
drop everything and run out to the
wagons all assemble at the one make their way in opposite direcwagon with his lariat.
The night wrangler is now bring- where the captain is sitting, already tions. The leader of each tries to
ing in the saddle-band, which he mounted. He waits a very short get such a “scatter” on his men that
had been up all night guarding. A time — for laggards receive but scant they will cover completely all the
rope corral is rigged up by stretch- mercy — before announcing the pro- land gone over. This morning work
ing a rope from each wheel of one posed camping-place and parceling is called circle riding, and is pecuside of the wagon, making a V- out the work among those present. liarly hard in the Bad Lands on
shaped space, into which the saddle If, as is usually the case, the line of account of the remarkably broken,
horses are driven. Certain men march is along a river or creek, he rugged nature of the country.
The men come in on lines that
stand around to keep them inside, appoints some men to take a dozen
while the others catch the horses. others and drive down (or up) it tend to a common center — as if the
Many outfits have one man to do all ahead of the day herd, so that the sticks of a fan were curved. As the
latter will not have to travel through band goes out, the leader from time
the roping.
As soon as each has caught his other cattle; the day herd itself to time detaches one or two men to
horse — usually a strong, tough ani- being driven and guarded by a ride down through certain sections
mal, the small, quick ponies being dozen men detached for that pur- of the country, making the shorter,
or what are called inside, circles,
reserved for the work round the pose.
The rest of the riders are divided while he keeps on; and finally,
herd in the afternoon — the band,
now in charge of the day wrangles, into two bands, placed under men retaining as companions the two or
is turned loose, and everyone sad- who know the country, and start three whose horses are toughest,
dles up as fast as possible. It sill out, one on each side, to bring in makes the longest or outside circle
lacks some time of being sunrise, every head for fifteen miles back. himself, going clear back to the
and the air has in it t he peculiar The captain then himself rides divide, or whatever the point may
down to the new camping-place, so be that marks the limit of the
chill of the early morning.
When all are saddled, many of as to be there as soon as any cattle round-up work, and then turning
the horses bucking and dancing are brought in.
and working straight to the meetingMeanwhile the two bands, a
about, the riders from the different
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