Showing posts with label Equine Transportation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Equine Transportation. Show all posts

Saturday, February 3, 2024

Friday, January 19, 2024

Spurs

This is one of those posts that have been lingering for a long time. . . a very long time in this case.  The draft of this dates back to 2015.

I was looking back on my lists of drafts, I have a bunch, and realized I never finished this.  I'm not sure why, even though this relates to the underlying theme of the blog pretty well and I really should have.  As the blog slows down from daily entries, as we run up on the signing of the Versailles Treaty, I ought to post some of these older drafts that have something to do with the theme, more generally, of the blog, and which assist in what I hope will be a fairly historically accurate novel (which I need to get to work on more as well).

These are all spurs, and all spurs I own.  I have a reason for owning spurs, so these are all tools of the trade in a way. But how long have these individual types been around?

"Gumball Spurs"

The spurs above are a type worn by Western riders called "gumball spurs". They lack a rowell, and just have a blunt ball on the end.  Lots of non Western spurs are like this, but its fairly rare to see very many working riders wear this type.



The spur strap here is a classic Western style that you can find examples of going way back.


Here's another set.  These are a more typical Western set of spurs with a couple of small chimes that ring.  Everyone has probably heard the song "I've got spurs that jingle jangle jingle". Well, these do.


I bought the Colorado Saddlery spurs as I wanted to replace the gumball spurs for regular use, but I wasn't very happy with them.  So I went to these:

These spurs below are U.S. Army Model 1911 Spurs, the last model used by the Army.  These spurs are quite plain as a rule.




Wyoming Catholic Cowboys - raw and real: Snow Balls

Wyoming Catholic Cowboys - raw and real: Snow Balls: I know winter does funny things, but this one always surprises me. In the right contentions, snow will build up under horses hooves, making ...

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Sigh . . .

And depicted with a horse too. . . 

Kroger retires after 35 years of service 

Bart KrogerCODY - Worland Wildlife Biologist Bart Kroger retired last month, bringing his 35-year career with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to a close. 

“Bart has been referred to as the ‘core of the agency’, meaning through his dedication and continuous hard work, he has significantly and meaningfully impacted wildlife management within his district and throughout the state,” said Corey Class, Cody region wildlife management coordinator. “Throughout his career, he has been a solid, steady and dependable wildlife biologist, providing a foundation for wildlife conservation and management in the Bighorn Basin.”

Through his quiet and thoughtful approach, Bart has gained the respect of both his peers and the public. Bart is best known for his commitment to spending time in the field gaining first-hand knowledge of the wildlife and the habitat that supports them, as well as the people he serves in his district. 

Monday, December 4, 2023

Messed Up Animal Ecology. Why you can't separate out your favorite animal, and demonize your least favorite, and make a lick of sense.

The other night on the local news, some guy from some environmental outfit was yapping about "wild horses", equating them "with other wild animals like deer and elk", and suggesting that cattle need to be removed from the range.

One of the things he brought up about cattle were their numbers, in comparison to "wild" horses.

His argument was intellectually bereft, but then arguments in this area often are.

Winslow Homer painting of a (fairly thin looking) plow horse.  Lots of "chunks" were let go in the 30s when their owners droughted out, their descendants still roaming the range today.


There are no wild horses in North America at all.

None, nada, zippo, "0".

There are a little over 64,000 feral horses, all in the West, in the Western United States.  If we include burros, which at least nobody pretends are a wild animal, there are 82,000 feral equines.  

All wild equines stem, at the very oldest, from animals that were brought on to the continent in 1519.  Quite a few probably don't really have any Spanish blood in their veins at all, and hail from horses much more recently brought in. There's fairly good evidence that in the upper West horses came down out of Canada, not up from Mexico.  

Some poor coureur des bois awakened one morning, in other words, and thought "Chu dans marde! Mon cheval est parti!"


"Bourgeois" W---r, and His Squaw" by Alfred Jacob Miller, depicting a coureur des bois and his Native American spouse.  This is a famous painting, but we're not supposed to like it now.  One art museum notes about it:  "These words, which shaped how Miller's contemporaries viewed the watercolors, reveal the racism and sexism embedded in 19th-century exploration and colonization of the western part of what is today the United States."  Oh, horse crap.  Most trappers were culturally French, and the French had intermixed with the native population from day one.  This could just as easily be "guy and his wife."  The comment itself imposed an Anglo-American view on a Franco-American and Native American landscape.

Moreover, the introduction date to the Native Americans, at least on the Northern Plains, is much more recent than supposed, and even then, they didn't take them right up.  Indeed, among the Shoshone it produced a big argument, with the arguers, mostly young men, taking off and acquiring the name "The Arguers", i.e., Comanche.

In the 1930s, a lot of farmers in the West droughted out and simply let their horses go, including stocky draft horses, i.e., "chunks". Then again, in the 1970s the numbers of wild horses expanded as recent imports abandoned pasture pets out on the range and went back to their homes in Port Arthur, or wherever, and even now some of that happens.  The majestic broom tail of the range today may have been Little Becky's 4H project before she left for UW, died her hair purple, and started protesting for Hamas.

Okay, so what about cows?

Long horn in a herd of Angus or Black Baldies.  I'm not really sure how this bovine ended up in this herd.

They came in at just about the same time, or earlier.  Cattle were brought to the Caribbean as early as 1493 by Columbus, which is really early.  "In 1492 Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue", but in 1493 the livestock truck, basically, pulled up to the dock.  Cows can and do go wild, but nobody gets very romantic about it, and there isn't a Wild and Free Ranging Cow Act.  Nobody goes by the moniker "Wild Cow Annie".  A wild cow we had went rogue and recruited other cows to her rogue wild cow band, which shows how wild they can get.  A neighboring rancher, caught her and shipped her as a menace. We got the check, and were happy for that end.

There are about 90,000,000 head of cattle in the United States as of this past summer, down from 100,000,000 in 1998.  

Okay, that's a lot of cows.

Which bring back our ignorant protagonist's point.  Before Columbus came and said "let's stock this range and lose some horses doing it", he seems to argue, the rangeland was empty of large ungulates.

Um, nope.

There were something like 50,000,0000 to 75,000,000 buffalo.



But, gee, Yeoman, that would mean that the entire ungulate supporting range of North America has always had a lot of large ungulates on it. . . 

Yep, that's what it means.

Currently, there are about 20,500 Plains bison in wild herds and an additional 420,000 in commercial herds, which we are supposed to pretend are wild herds.

Given our inability to accurately state how many head of anything were on the Pre Columbian landmass, what this basically tells you is the ungulate population hasn't changed very much.  Overall populations of large wild animals, i.e., "big game" are way up, however, due to water projects and farmed fields.

So the entire Cow Bad/Horse Good argument is pretty flawed.

Now, the line of last defense on this is that cows cause global warming. That's because cows fart.

Buffalo don't.

Umm. . . 

Well, buffalo do, but only Febreeze.



Well, no, they fart methane too.

In reality, all mammals fart, but some fart more than they otherwise would due to diet.  You already know this due to your coworker who has, every day, the Lumberjack Special at Hefty Portions for breakfast, followed by the Ejército del Norte special at El Grande Conquistador for lunch, a quart of scotch around 2:00 p.m., and goes home and has his spouse's Roast Wildebeest Surprise for dinner (all Keto approved, of course).  The only real argument here, therefore, is that maybe cattle ought not to be finished off on corn, which they probably wouldn't normally do unless somebody left a gate down. That likely makes them gassy.

Lascaux painting of aurochs, approximately 36,000 years ago.  Note also the deer/roebucks and horse depicted.

Taking this out worldwide, I'd note, cattle are native to the entire rest of the planet in some form, save for Australia.  Wild cattle ranged Europe, Asia and Africa.  They aren't new here, and they've been wondering around chewing their cuts and farting for longer than we've been a species.

So back to environmental destruction.

The first real notable example of it was Cottonwood bottoms in the American West.  During the winter, buffalo hang out in them.  Feral horses took it up.  And mounted Native Americans, who previously had a pretty limited impact on the environment, did too.

But you can't really say anything about that.

Friday, August 18, 2023

Saturday, August 18, 1923. Silent Cal goes riding. Hoff family goes walking.







Calvin Coolidge went for a ride on this Saturday on 1923.  He was equipped, we might note, with a nearly new looking Army McClellan saddle.

Frank Hoff and his family were apparently on a long walkabout.


Sunday, July 23, 2023

Monday, July 23, 1973. Old Faithful Inn added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Old Faithful Inn in 1909.
Today In Wyoming's History: July 23: 1923  1973   Old Faithful Inn was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Attribution:  On This Day.
  President Nixon refused to turn over tape recordings to the Senate or special prosecutor.

Tuesday, June 27, 2023

Wednesday, June 27, 1923. Harding at Zion, Air To Air.

The first air-to-air refueling occurred between two DH 4s of the U.S. Army Air Service.


The event took place at Rockwell Field in San Diego.  While the refueling was a success, an intended four day long duration did not occur.


President Harding was in Zion National Park, seeing some of the park by horseback.

Pope Pius XI condemned the French and Belgium occupation of the Ruhr, warning that it could lead to the "final ruin of Europe".

Arlington experimental farm.

Tuesday, June 6, 2023

Sunday, June 6, 1943. Radio broadcasts, Triple Crown, Actor in the Navy, Rohatyn Ghetto.

The French Committee of National Liberation made a radio broadcast pledging to abolish the "arbitrary powers" imposed by the Vichy regime and restore French liberties and republican government.

Count Fleet won the Belmont, and hence the Triple Crown.

Paul Newman, having enlisted days before his 18th birthday, was called up for service in the Navy.


Newman wanted to be a pilot, but was taken out of flight school when it was discovered he was color blind.  He went on to be a torpedo bomber crewman.

Sarah Sundin noted Newman's enlistment, but also noted the A36:

Today in World War II History—June 6, 1943: North American A-36 Apache flies first combat mission in a US Twelfth Air Force mission to Pantelleria. Future actor Paul Newman enlists in the US Navy, age 18.

We don't think much of the A-36, the dive bomber version of the P-51.  The odd aircraft only came into existence in the first place as the 1942 appropriations for new fighter aircraft had run out and converting the assembly line to dive bombers kept the P-51 line open.  Only 500 were built, with most used by the U.S. Army Air Force, but some used by the RAF.

A-36 in Italy.

The Germans liquidated the Rohatyn Ghetto in what is now Ukraine.

Thursday, April 27, 2023

Friday, April 27, 1923. The IRA calls it quits, The Pro Treaty Sinn Finn depart, New Country Club, Harding and Work.

Having already effectively ceased combat operations, as they'd already lost the war, Éamon de Valera announced that the Irish Republican Army was prepared to agree to a ceasefire.

On the same day, Cumann na nGaedheal ("Society of the Gaels) a political party of pro treaty former members of Sinn Féin was formed.  It would merge into Finn Gael in 1933.

For residents of Casper, familiar with the Country Club, the origins of it were in evidence in this day in 1923.


Quite an assortment of other news as well.

And not just in Casper, but all around, it would seem.

The horse jumping over car photograph, probably last popular as horse jumping over Jeep during World War Two, was in vogue.



Jack Prestage on Tipperary in this case.

President Harding, whom we now know should probably have been in a clinic, visited the Tri State Clinic.


Warren G. Harding, who was in the last year of his life, was 57 years old at the time of his death. . . a good 20 years older than Donald Trump is now.  People don't really "live longer", contrary to the common claim, but they don't die as young due to various factors and heart attacks and strokes kill fewer.

Still, It's insane to be electing a President over 70 years of age.  It's questionable, really, to be electing somebody to their first term over 60 which means, if my restrictions mean anything, that I wouldn't be qualified.  I'd do a better job than either of the main candidates, I'm quite certain, which disqualifies me to start with, but age ought to.

In this photo, Harding didn't really look well.

And the guy third second from his left, as viewed, looks annoyed.

Huber Work accepted a resolution from his postal clerks.

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

Mid Week at Work. Packing in.

 


WSGS geologists used horses and mules to pack in supplies for a week of field mapping on The Ramshorn quadrangle last summer. They rode in 20 miles along the South Fork Shoshone River to a basecamp in Bliss Creek Meadows, where they camped and mapped for the week. 1/2