Wild Horses

One thing I always remember is my dad talking about the wild horses around here when he was a kid. The neighbors would get together about once a year and gather them up and cut off whatever they needed for horses for the year and let them loose again.<br />n<br />nI wish I had a story to tell you about it but I don't. I never really heard a specific story about gathering the wild horses. About the only thing I have ever consistently heard about the wild horses in the area is how much the ranchers liked them, and missed them. "They were the toughest little horses you ever wanted to ride. Go all day long and never get tired, refuel overnight on grass and go again another day. They might have been the ugliest and littlest horses you ever wanted to see but tough." I've had pointed out to me different spots they turned them and where some of the gathering places were but not many specific stories that I can remember.<br />n<br />nDad has talked about how they went about gathering them, taking turns running them until they were tired enough to turn into a corral, and how many times they spilled them. This happened more often than I think they wanted to admit. One time dad was talking about spilling them when he said he seen the damnedest thing. An old rancher by the name of Lee was riding with them and the horses spilled on them. Dad said he saw Lee shake down his rope and out on the open range as the horses were breaking past, dabbed a loop over a young fillies head and then shake down another loop and dab the second loop over another young fillies head. He got two horses on the roundup and they never corralled the horses. That would have been a sight to see, a guy rope two wild horses out in open like that.<br />n<br />nThe government made the decision in the early 50's to gather up all the wild horses in the area and sell them. Like I said the old timers miss them to this day. I never got to see them so I don't know. Something I missed.