LET 'ER BUCK 



dollars, not knowing how he could buck, and sold to 

 the Round-Up for five hundred, an offer of eight hun- 

 dred coming in a few minutes too late after the deal 

 was closed. 



The Round-Up buckers are given the best care which 

 also means given a full free life on the range, and in 

 winter no matter under what difficulties or cost are 

 given hay; but they are never ridden except at the 

 bucking contests. 



Sometimes the buckers take it into their heads to 

 break range and travel, and more than once the live- 

 stock director has had to send out a "posse" of expert 

 trackers to run them down. The last break of this sort 

 was when the pony, donkey, and Angel led by Ram- 

 bling Sam escaped over the hills and far away before 

 they were rounded-up. 



The wrangler, in a way, is the stable man of the 

 range, the caretaker of the horses in use, and about 

 the corrals and stables of the Round-Up at Pendleton 

 one finds some old experts at handling. Fred Stickler, 

 who has been barn boss for many a Round-Up, has 

 that peculiar inborn knack of not only handling skit- 

 tish range horses in the stables, but of walking with 

 impunity right amongst a corral full of wild horses 

 where many a man would be kicked and stamped upon. 

 Fred has a quiet manner of gentling and speaking to 

 them which they understand, and as one rancher re- 

 marked, "without any fuss or feathers." 



Some of the best wranglers in the country like Bill 

 Ridings and Jess Brunn have a chance to show their 

 caution, cleverness, understanding of horses and met- 

 tle in the arena during the contests in this he-man's 

 game, when the dangerous, wild, squealing, man-fight- 

 ing buckers are brought in. Being trampled upon is 



96 



