LET 'ER BUCK 



You see at a glance that those big, raw-boned cow- 

 boys striding across the arena with their saddles are 

 real cowboys who have ridden long hours in all sorts 

 of weather. Most of them have mingled with des- 

 perate men. There is one among them who unfor- 

 tunately has "time" to serve — they say it was horse 

 rustling — but he rides too well to let a little thing like 

 that prevent him entering these contests, so for a few 

 days he is out on parole. 



There is no more important adjunct in cowboy 

 routine than the cow-horse, worth $300 today in the 

 open market, a horse which knows the art of the 

 game — how to ford, swim, and avoid quicksands, 

 dodge the traps of the prairie dog and gopher, to move 

 furtively in a prairie herd so as not to stampede it, 

 how to "cut out," and then to follow the quarry advan- 

 tageously in every turn, to withstand the sudden shock 

 of the tautened lasso, and finally to hold it when the 

 thrown steer is to be tied. But before the cow-pony 

 goes through this schooling he must, when about three 

 or four years old, be brought wild from the range, 

 roped, and ridden. From this phase of ranch life — 

 broncho busting — has developed the sport of riding, 

 particularly bad bucking horses, and those ridden at 

 the Pendleton Round-Up are as bad as they make 

 them, whether they be "show bucker," "trained 

 bucker," "outlaw," or "wild horse." 



A horse that bucks hard, straight away, with nose 

 between front feet, is not necessarily a bad kind of 

 bucker for the expert to ride. Still he looks well from 

 the grandstand, and in consequence is known as a 

 "show bucker," but he is never used as a semi-final. 



A "wild horse" is one that has roamed the range 

 and has never before known the feel of headstall or 



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