Thursday, January 10, 2013

Jim Griffin: Horses, Dogs, and Texas Rangers


 Howdy,

My name’s Jim Griffin, and I’ll be the regular 2nd Thursday of the month contributor on the Western Fictioneers blog.

As a brief introduction, my main loves, not in any particular order, are horses, dogs, (especially small dogs), the Texas Rangers, and New Hampshire, particularly the southwest corner, otherwise known as the Monadnock region. Now, some of you are no doubt scratching your heads and saying, “horses, dogs, Texas Rangers, all right. But what in the world does New Hampshire have to do with anything Western?” The answer is, not much, except for this. The first use of branding to identify livestock, which just about everyone assumes started with the large free-roaming longhorn cattle herds in Texas and then spread throughout the West, actually was in New Hampshire. And the livestock branded weren’t cattle, but those critters anathema to the old time cattleranchers, sheep. Yes, sheep… woolies…mutton. Branding sheep in New Hampshire and later other parts of New England started back in Colonial times, even before the United States existed as a country. Just like western cattlemen grazed their herds on common land, identifying ownership by brands, in colonial New England animals, mostly sheep and swine, were pastured on common land, usually called the town common. Unlike the typical image of a nice patch of green land surrounded by neat white houses and a white-steepled church, the common or green was usually either dusty or muddy (depending on the weather and time of year) from grazing and rooting livestock, and trash-strewn besides. But we can still thank the farmers of New Hampshire for introducing branding to the New World. And of course some New Hampshire folk headed West to help settle the frontier. Several fought at the Alamo, and many in the Civil War. As people from New England’s land, never very fertile to begin with and extremely rocky, played out, plenty of New Englanders headed West to start again.

Now on to things more Western. I’ve had horses most of my life, and can’t imagine having to live without one. I still think the infernal combustion engine is the creation of the devil, and the world would be better off with fewer cars and more horses. Maybe we’d all learn to relax a bit more and get along with each other better, too, if more of us rode horses. It’s hard to stay angry when you’re on the back of a good horse.

As far as the Texas Rangers, I’ve been fascinated by the organization since I was a kid. Have a friend who just retired from the Rangers, and got to know enough about them that I’m considered an amateur and unofficial historian of the outfit, although I sure don’t claim to be an expert. I’ve collected a whole passel of Texas Ranger artifacts over the years, which are now in the permanent collections of the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum in Waco, Texas. It’s a great museum to learn about the Rangers. If any of you are down Waco way be sure to stop it, and see some of my stuff. Most is in the Texas Rangers in Popular Culture Gallery, and the items get rotated in and out.

And that’s the lead-in for the chance to mention my books. I’ve got two series of Texas Rangers novels in print, plus one stand alone book, and some more in the works. Not to mention a whole bunch of stuff all over the web.  And of course stories in both Western Fictioneers anthologies, and am one of the contributors to the WF Wolf Creek series. My novels completely traditional Westerns, no avant-garde edgy stuff or western mixed with science fiction ala The Wild Wild West. You’ll find straight-shootin’ good guys, nasty bad guys, brave women, smart horses, and plenty of fist-fighting action and shooting in my stories. You won’t need to be afraid to let your kids (or your mama) read most of ‘em.

One other passion of mine is traveling all over the West, although I don’t have the chance to do that as much as I used to. My first trip west I was headed to a job in San Diego, and at an overnight stop in Midland, Texas my hosts offered to take me on a trail ride to let my horse stretch his legs, since he’d been riding in a horse trailer behind my ‘65 Impala for three days, and the previous stops only had small corrals for him. Started the ride, and after a couple of miles of sand and more sand I finally had to ask where was the beach? Here, where there’s sand, there’s usually a beach. Not in west Texas.

Other big surprise was when I first saw the Rocky Mountains. Kept wondering why they didn’t look all that high, not much higher than a lot of the mountains here in northern New England. Then it hit me that when you first see the Rockies you’re already a mile or more above sea level. So, a 12,000 foot mountain seen from 6,000 feet altitude on the plains doesn’t look much higher than one of our 6,000 footers seen from 700 feet above sea level.

So, enough of this introductory stuff. Next time around I’ll promise to talk Rangers, horses, books, and maybe even a dog or two. Not all at the same time, of course. And if any of you have any questions on the above subjects, I’d love to hear ‘em.

Jim

15 comments:

  1. Great info, Jim! Who'd a thunk woolies would lead the way for the big brands in the West? Thanks for the history lesson.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Meg. Warm day up here in New England, so just got back from riding, which means I'm checking in later than I should, but when you get a 50 degree day in January in these parts you get outside....fast. Almost too warm for Yankee, with his thick winter coat. Out the door again in couple of minutes, but I'll be back later.

    Jim

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jim, I really enjoyed your blog and learning more about you. I always wanted a horse growing up, but of course, that was out of the question. My parents were not "animal" people, and we lived in town. Every time I'd ask my dad for one, he'd say, "Where would we put him? He wouldn't be happy in our back yard." (Which was true, since our back yard was very small.) I didn't know until sometime later that people actually RENTED pastures for their horses! LOL Yankee is very lucky to have you. Very interesting about where our cattle brands first came into existence, too! Thanks for an excellent post--I'm looking forward to more.
    Cheryl

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. BTW, the little guy in the photo is Merlin the Mini. He was headed for slaughter, but luckily a horse rescue outfit got him, and then Gina took him to keep Yankee and her horse Trooper company, since they would get lonely when one of us rode out and left the other behind.

      Jim

      Delete
  4. Gteat introduction and history lesson. I enjoyed your musing.

    Les

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks, all of you. Now if only I could figure out how to get this blasted blog to let me reply with as myself and with my photo, rather than anonymous. Tried with Google, tried with my website URL, but nothing. So, I had to settle for anonymous.... but trust me, this is me.

    Cheryl, somewhere there is a saying that if a man (okay, let's be PC and make that person) has known one good horse, he (or she) has been blessed, and if he (or she) has known a great horse, then he (or she) has been truly blessed. I've owned (or more properly been owned by) two real good horses, and two great ones, so I guess I've been blessed beyond belief.

    Les, Glad you found my musing amusing. Sorry, couldn't resist.


    Jim

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I believe that, Jim! I just have to substitute "DOG" for "HORSE" LOL I love animals of all kinds.
      Cheryl

      Delete
  6. Jim, I'm looking forward to your blog article each month.

    My guess is you changed your mind about the Rockies once you dropped off the shelf and into the rough country. My experience is the opposite--I grew up surrounded by mountains. When I went back East for the first time, I kept wondering where the mountains were. We drove over the Blue Ridge Mountains and I missed them completely. West Virginia is just a bunch of rolling hills covered with trees. Out here, we call that the Palouse (only no trees).

    Still, any of these places would be tough to get through if you had no interstate freeway and your best friend was a pack mule.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes and no. The Rockies are much more rugged, and of course there are a lot more of them, so in sum yes they are bigger and, ahem, rockier, but Mt.Washington in New Hampshire is a very dangerous place... timberline is at about 4000-4500 feet in the Presidentials of NH, far lower than in the Rockies. Mt. Washington is home of the World's Worst Weather, too. I'm a longtime member of the Obs up there. Been on top in blizzards and hurricane force winds. Check out the Obs website at www.mountwashington.org .

      Jim

      Delete
  7. Great introduction, Jim. I certainly look forward to more information on horses.

    Keith

    ReplyDelete
  8. Interesting blog, Jim. I've been to the museum in Waco and it's a great place just for fun or for research. Good lookin' horse you're astride in the photo, but that's not a dog behind you, it's a pony. Enjoyed the blog. Pete Peterson

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually, he's not a pony, he's Merlin the mini-horse. Hard to tell the difference, but he is a horse, not a pony. And that's one area which is very technical, mini-horse vs. pony, so I won't get into that. Might just get into the difference between a pinto and a paint, though.

      Jim

      Delete
  9. Enjoyed the post and surprised to learn the origin of American branding. I've been to the Ranger museum and enjoyed it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Probably no more surprised than I was when I first learned about the origin.

      Delete
  10. Would like to thank everyone who visited. See you next month.

    Jim

    ReplyDelete