Part 2: I-Z
What would the Old West be without a discussion of the
typical mode of travel: horseback riding? Anybody who could afford one owned at
least one horse, and many working folks kept several. A cowboy had a whole
string of mounts that he used for different jobs. So lace your tree up (tie on
your saddle) and get aboard – today we’re going riding.
Iron out, Kick the
frost out, Ride the kinks out, Smooth out the humps: to ride a troublesome
horse until it stops bucking and gets down to business
Jack-knife: the
action of a wildly-pitching horse in the middle of a jump
Jigger: to
over-run or over-heat a horse
Jiggle: the
normal gait of a cowpony
Kettle: to pitch
and buck
Kick the lid off:
to break into violent bucking
Kinks: what’s
found in the backbone of a cowpony when first mounted, causing it to buck
Let out: to kick
Light rider: one
who sits lightly in the saddle and so does not need to adjust the cinch ring
often, or chafe the horse’s back with the saddle
Mounting:
Westerners mount a horse from the left side or “near” side; the “Indian side”
(right or “off” side) is “wrong.”
Pitcher: a horse
given to bucking
Pussy-backing: a
gentle kind of bucking with an arched back
Riding slick:
riding a bucking horse without a bucking roll, locked spurs, or other “cheaters”
Roughing out: the
first riding of a bronc
Single-foot, rack:
a gait halfway between a trot and a canter
Spanish trot: an
easy, swinging trot
Spike your horse’s
tail: to bring a horse to such a sudden stop that it practically sits down
Spinner: a horse
given to bucking in tight circles
Stargazer: not
said kindly; a horse that keeps its head high in the air, the result of the
trainer being rough with the bit
Sunfish: a
dangerous jumping twist with first one side toward the ground and then the other;
called sunning his belly, sunning his sides – the horse is a sunfisher
Swallow his head:
the horse puts its head down between its legs when bucking
Throw-back: the
horse throws itself over backwards to try to crush the rider
Thrown: Here are
some of the colorful euphemisms for becoming separated from your horse – dirty
your shirt, eaten dirt without stooping, chased a cloud, chewed/eaten/tasted
gravel, gone forked-end up, gone grass hunting, gone picking daisies, gone up
to fork a cloud, gotten busted, gotten dumped, gotten dusted, gotten flung
away, gotten grassed, gotten piled, gotten spilled, gotten spread-eagled,
kissed the ground, landed on your sombrero, lost your hat and gotten off to get
it, lost your horse, met your shadow on the ground, picked daisies, sunned your
moccasins, taken a squatter’s rights, taken up a homestead
Untrack a horse:
to lead a horse forward a few steps before mounting. If the horse is in a mood
to act up, it will show it at this time. No old timer ever mounts a horse
without untracking it.
Walking-beaming:
bucking so that first the front feet and then the hind feet are in the air
Sources:
A Dictionary of the
Old West, Peter Watts, 1977
Dictionary of the
American West, Win Blevins, 1993
J.E.S. Hays
www.jeshays.com
hays.jes@gmail.com
Great info. Puts me in the mood to do some bronc writing!
ReplyDeleteI have a couple minor quibbles. Many, perhaps most, did not own a horse at all as they were expensive to feed and the darn things eat whether working or not. Hands generally rode horses owned by their employers. And only rich townspeople kept horses. Also about mounting: when in the mountains you jolly well get on from the uphill side and never mind if it is left or right.
ReplyDeleteSo endeth my quibble.
If you've never been thrown, you've never really ridden. And Frank is correct. Most horses can be mounted from either side. It's a fallacy that a horse won't allow himself to be mounted from the right.
ReplyDeleteI love it when people find niggles - you know, every one of my reference books had that bit about mounting sides in them?
ReplyDeleteThanks for pointing those out to me!
Generally speaking, you are right about the near and off sides. Though I've gotten off and on from both sides of the horse, I prefer to mount from the near side--as your books suggest. If the off side was uphill and terrain didn't keep me from it, I just turned the horse around so the near side was uphill.
DeleteAgain, fascinating and useful. Doris
ReplyDeleteI know nothing about horses so I was wondering how far can a cowboy ride in a day? How fast can a rider push his mount before stopping? How long should his horse rest and what does he eat on a long trip?
ReplyDeleteHorses don't like me. Great info, Jes! thanks, will come in useful... Frank and Jim too.
ReplyDeleteI had a vaquero once tell me what it meant to let you favorite personal horse loose in a ranch's remunda. It meant you were throwing in with the ranch and the other hands for the good or the bad of it. It is a sign of trust.
ReplyDeleteRick, Thirty miles is a good day. More than that is really pushing it. Fifty would be exceptional.
ReplyDeleteto continue. A horse can go full speed for no more than a couple of miles. You'd have to walk, jog,(trot), and lope your horse, varying the pace to cover a lot of territory. As far as stopping to rest, it depends on how hard you are pushing the horse and his condition. I can ride Yank for half a day or more if we're just walking, with the occasional trot of lope. But I generally give him more rest stops than that. Minimum thirty minutes. Far as food, it's what's available. Grass, grass, and more grass. That's why a cowboy would want a tough mustang type horse, not a purebred like a Thoroughbred. One reason the Indians were able to give the US Cavalry fits is their horses were tough, used to living off the land, while the Cavalry horses were bred for less rugged conditions, and grain-fed and comparatively pampered. The Indians' horses could far outlast the Cavalry mounts. Today that;s not the problem it used to be... you bring along grain and hay in the trailer.
ReplyDeleteI have wondered about that for a long time. Thank you for taking the time to answer.
DeleteGood info, Jim! I hate it when you see TV or movie horses going full speed for hours and hours.
ReplyDeleteGordo, I'll keep that tidbit in mind - hadn't heard it before.
Meg, you should meet mine - he likes everybody