LET 'ER BUCK 



Then comes working the cattle or "cutting out," the 

 strays, i. e., branded cattle of other owners, or "mave- 

 ricks" which are the unbranded cattle ; separating those 

 they want from those they do not want — the others 

 they let go right back on the same grass. Say, out of a 

 herd of four or six thousand, there might be eight hun- 

 dred or a thousand which did not belong there. When 

 they have finished working the bunch, they push those 

 belonging on that range back again. 



Horses always run on the range in bands and in- 

 variably stay in the same band. Even if there are a 

 thousand head which drink at the same water hole, 

 when through, the entire herd disintegrates to their re- 

 spective bands. The head stallion is monarch of his 

 band, and if a mare lags she is not likely to again, for 

 with the swiftness of the wind he will round her up, 

 likely as not biting a piece right out of her. 



Now on a round-up, which in the old days or on a 

 few big ranches today, lasts a month or so, the range 

 work was exceptionally exhausting to the horses. 

 Sometimes a single rider would use a half dozen differ- 

 ent horses or more in a single day. Consequently a 

 large herd, or band of horses was required. The 

 bands of saddle horses used on a round-up are called 

 "cavies" and are used every day. On a round-up in 

 the '80's in Washington where the cavy comprised 

 some six or eight cavies — fifty to eighty in each — the 

 whole number totalled some six hundred horses. 



These horses were in charge of the wranglers, who 

 were divided into a day and a night shift, for wrang- 

 lers during the round-up which was on the move, 

 stayed with the horses all night and brought them into 

 the corral in the morning. Each outfit had its "chuck- 

 wagon," in which food was carried and all the appur- 



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