A RANCHMAN'S RECOLLECTIONS 



breed — small, mean, tough, quick as a cat, and had 

 the "cow instinct," which suggests that it may be well 

 to say what a cow pony should be. His first qualifi- 

 cations are speed and endurance. Nevertheless, one- 

 may have these and still not have much of a cow 

 horse. He may be all right for ordinary rounding 

 or line work, but he is not a cow horse unless he have 

 "cow sense" as a dominant characteristic. Training 

 has much to do with it, but he must have the instinct 

 for holding a roped animal, "turning on a half-dol- 

 lar," and countering every move of an animal that is 

 being cut out. The old Spanish horses had this in- 

 stinct as true as the bird dog has the bird instinct, 

 and that is why Spanish blood is the basis of most 

 Texas ramudas. Practically no producer of cow 

 horses, however, appears to have been satisfied to stay 

 with the Spanish blood, in its purity. The difiiculty 

 of getting satisfactory Spanish sires may largely ex- 

 plain this fact, but probably meanness had much to do 

 with the popular desire to breed the strain up with- 

 out losing the cow instinct. 



To go back to the fifty Spanish marcs bought to 

 found the S. M. S. breeding bunch, a sire was needed, 

 and as the early employees of the ranch had come 

 from Williamson county they went back home for a 

 stallion. I have their statement that he was Arabian. 

 Certain it Is that he possessed nerve, endurance, style 

 and action, was "a horse all over," and pure white. 

 Many of his get were still in use when I came to the 



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