Western Archives - Dogear Diary

The Village Horse Doctor

West of the Pecos

by Ben K. Green

This one was plenty interesting and got a few chuckles from me as well. Has a lot of similar subject material to The Time It Never Rained, but it\’s more lighthearted in tone and feels like you\’re listening to someone sitting telling you tales. Some of the stories are very brief, others draw out over several chapters. It\’s also about ranching in a dry area of Texas, but in this case the author is relating his own experiences, working as a veterinarian. He travelled vast distances to treat and care for rancher\’s livestock- namely sheep but also horses, cattle and sometimes pet dogs and cats. He tells of his early years trying to get a foothold in the region and gain the trust of the local people, and of his ongoing efforts to diagnose illnesses caused by animals eating toxic desert plants- especially during times of drought. He ran a small laboratory and describes his methods of inquiry- doing postmortems on dead livestock, taking samples of plants, stomach contents, etc and extracting the toxins, even how in a few cases he developed medicine specific to plant issues in the region- and the great difficulties in getting the medicines made so he could distribute them. In many cases his efforts to find out what had caused animals to sicken or die took a lot of thought and sleuthing, which is engaging to read about. Sometimes when all the adults were at a loss, it would be some keen observations made by children on the ranch that helped him figure it out. He\’s also pretty good at drawing character studies and pointing out failings of human nature around him, admiring jobs well done and fine animals, watching shady deals happen, being somewhat involved in local horse racing, and so on. At one point he has to deal with a rabies scare, during another time a serious outbreak of sleeping sickness among horses. The strangest case was when he saved a horse\’s eye by extracting a foreign object that somehow got into the eye socket behind the eyeball- it was a glass marble. I\’m still scratching my head over that one. Overall a rather a different slant from the other Ben K. Green books I\’ve read before, and quite enjoyable.

Rating: 4/5 306 pages, 1971

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Animals Nonfiction, Current Reads, Western

The Time It Never Rained

by Elmer Kelton

Liked this one much better than I had remembered. I\’ve read it at least twice before, though not in over a decade. Set in West Texas, it\’s about a rancher struggling to hold onto his land and his livestock through a drought that lasts seven years. His love is cattle, but it\’s sheep that pays the bills- so quite a bit of this is about sheepherding and shearing time. When things start to get tough, he has to face the bitter choice of selling off some of his livestock, eventually even his sheep herd dwindles and he\’s forced to make some hard choices. Ranchers around him accept government assistance but Charlie Flagg resents the idea of \”taking handouts\” and refuses to sign up for the relief program, sticking it out on his own, whittling away his outfit, letting go his hired help. Tries to get his son, who is into rodeo and sees no value in the dried-up land, to come back and help him keep the ranch going, but that doesn\’t work out. Watches how others around him attempt to keep things afloat- some of their decisions turn out poorly, and others just barely help them squeak by. Like burning the spines off prickly pear to use it as livestock feed. I had forgotten entirely about the angora goats, so the ending was a surprise all over again to me, even though I did remember it had a hint of coming hope in the final pages. More about the land use and animal husbandry, it\’s also about the local politics in a small town, the financial issues in running the ranch, the uneasy relationship between landowners, Mexicans, and those recently come from across the border- frightened of being caught but desperate for work. I had also forgotten how much of this story is about the younger people, some chapters entirely told form the viewpoint of Charlie\’s son, his neighbor\’s daughter, or his foreman\’s oldest boy. It gave a good perspective changes as things shifted from the hands of the older generation into the new. The book gets a bit preachy sometimes with long ranting conversations, but I didn\’t mind, I was in the mood for a slow read. It was worth keeping around all these years, I think.

Rating: 4/5 373 pages, 1973

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Current Reads, General Fiction, Re-reads, Western

Sam Chance

by Banjamin Capps

Story of a man who helped build the West. As a young man he was a sergeant in the Confederate Army in Georgia, saw nothing there for himself when it was over. Left his girlfriend in Tennessee and traveled West with a buddy to see if he could make a success of something. Ended up in the vast land of Texas (at least, it seemed endless at the time). Started out catching wild cattle and taming them for use, selling some, eventually hiring a crew of men and breeding cattle. Follows his endeavors through the years as he gradually took ownership of more land, improved his cattle stock (quite a few breeding experiments, one with imported beef cattle and another with bison) and eventually brought his sweetheart out to live with him. Must have been a rough life for her (not much from her perspective). Eventually Chance became known around the region as a cattle baron- but he always felt indignant at those who challenged his use of the land, owing to all the work he\’d done to build his ranch up from absolute nothing. As the book closes he\’s an old man, having watched the world change, a town grow up around him, the native americans and bison disappear. He\’s not apologetic for his part in that, either. There\’s some rough and brutal parts, a lot about the hard choices he has to make as a rancher, always trying to decide what\’s best for his animals and the land, even if others don\’t see it that way.

Rating: 3/5 261 pages, 1965

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Current Reads, Historical Fiction, Western

A Thousand Miles of Mustangin\’

by Ben K. Green

This is one of the books I got at Powell\’s. It\’s not quite as lively and funny as Horse Tradin\’, but I still found it plenty interesting. The author needed work during the winter so he travelled south -horseback of course- to Big Bend country in Texas, across the border into Mexico, and later on to Arizona. All to try and catch wild horses he\’d heard of but nobody seemed sure they were even in the area. Used his smarts to find the mustangs, several different methods to catch them, with the help of some Mexicans in one area, and members of the Yaqui tribe in another, usually individuals who just wandered into his camp and offered to help (for a bit of pay, of course). In some cases he chased down and roped the wild horses, in another instance a local set snares for them, and in a third place Yaqui runners (mostly young girls on foot it turns out) would follow the horses for days until the worn-out animals gladly integrated themselves into Green\’s herd when gently driven towards them. The story rounds out by telling how he moved his growing herd of horses back towards home, dealt with Mexican bandits along the way who tried to extort money out of him, and then ranchers who didn\’t necessarily like him crossing their land. Gradually taming and breaking to ride some of the wild horses as they travelled, traded off a few along the way, and sold the main bunch to a man he knew who supplied them to the government. All through the story, the dependability and skill of his main horse Beauty really stands out. And more than anything, I was intrigued to read of some cures that he came across when in remote areas of the desert- in one case a Mexican treated a horse of snakebite using yucca (called dagger plant in the story), and in another instance an old woman used flour and yeast to grow mold- penicillin!- to treat an infected wound in Green\’s hand (where a mare had bit him). (Interestingly, there\’s another account of someone using yucca to cure a dog of snakebite on this page of a 1920\’s Dog Fancier publication). Oh, there\’s also a few encounters with cougars- he called them \’panther cats\’. Green would kill a young burro to distract the cougars from his horses, which incensed some of the Mexicans with him, who valued the burros just as much as horses, if not more. He actually lost a few helpers over their disagreement on this point.

Rating: 3/5 145 pages, 1972

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Animals Nonfiction, Current Reads, Western

Indian Saddle-Up

by Glenn Balch

Two young Native Americans from the Comanche tribe are out hunting pronghorn and bison when surprised by enemies from the Ute tribe. As one youth runs back to warn their tribe, the other decoys the enemy. When he finally evades the Utes and makes it back to camp, all his people are gone except for an elderly man they call Old Man Crazy, because he speaks of things no one believes- people with white skin who wear armor and travel on the backs of animals. At this time none of the Comanches had ever seen a white man and horses were unknown to them. So the youth and the crazy old man travel alone together, and they come across a small band of horses, (escaped from the Spanish Conquistadors). At first they find the strange animals frightening, then are eager to learn how to possess and ride the horses themselves, so they can take these new valuable animals back to the tribe. It isn\’t easy, particularly as the natives don\’t have any idea how to approach or control the horses, but they are smart in the ways of wild animals, and quickly learn by observing how different horses are from wild game (being domesticated, and already accustomed to humans). The younger Comanche is particular invested in the attempt to use horses because he has a lame foot which always slowed him down; this will give him an advantage among his people. But he has to face a lot of unexpected challenges, and looses the guidance of the old man too, ending up on his own to figure out how to ride the horse and then find his own people again.

This was a really well-told story, with good descriptions, realistic animal behaviors, engaging writing style and an interesting plot that surprised me a few times. I suppose its quality really stood out to me following close on a just-okay book, but it reminded me why Glenn Balch is still one of my favorite authors.

Rating: 4/5 210 pages, 1953

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Animals Fiction, Current Reads, Juvenile Fic, Western

Horse Tradin\’

by Ben K. Green

I know I read this book long ago as a teen, found at the public library. So when I came across it recently in a discard sale, snatched it up eager to see how it compared to my fond memory. It was a good read- enjoyed all over again.

It\’s a collection of short stories written by a man who traded horses and mules for a living, back when they were the major form of transportation and power in America (although a few stories feature early cars, or tractors first coming into use). The stories are mostly with a little twist- where the man thought he made a good trade but found out the horse had a hidden fault or behavior problem, sometimes thought he had sneakily played a poor horse off on a better trade, only to discover the animal he\’d acquired wasn\’t as advertised, either.

There were mules painted to look like young, grey dapple, a gypsy mare trained to lie down and groan when saddled, a spoiled lady\’s riding horse that wouldn\’t go more than a few yards from the barn. Many times the author showed how he could make the best of a poor situation, due to his understanding of equine behavior- train them out of their bad habits, or cleverly corral a bunch of wild mules that he\’d been given in trade because the prior owner assumed he would never be able to catch them. Most of the tales take place in Texas, a few further south- he traveled a lot in his work. There\’s one story of a match race on a native American reservation. Sometimes, Green couldn\’t make good on a bad trade, and foisted the poor quality mule or horse off on another unsuspecting person. But there are good, honest transactions in here too, where both parties were well satisfied and respected each other.

I was kind of shocked to read an instance of wasted, sickly horses fed arsenic to fatten them up (and have since read online that inorganic arsenic is commonly used in animal feed to make hogs and chickens grow faster). And the last story surprised me with a little detail that made sense of a totally unrelated book I also read and loved as a kid, An Edge of the Forest. In that one, a herd of deer feeds in a valley that makes them all sleep like death. I always puzzled over that. Here in one of Green\’s stories, some wild unbroken horses were put to graze in a valley of \”sleepy grass\” so they could be pawned off as tamed and gentle. There was something in the grass that made the animals lethargic. I\’ve looked it up, and it\’s a real thing. In some ways, this book also reminded me of Mr. Sponge\’s Sporting Tour.

Rating: 3/5 304 pages, 1963

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Animals Nonfiction, Current Reads, Re-reads, Short Stories, Western

Midnight

Wild Stallion of the West
by Rutherford Montgomery

An older book I picked up secondhand somewhere. It\’s about horses that live on a cattle range in the southwest. In particular, one fine black mare owned by the ranch but allowed to run free on the range and an old squatter living in a cabin in the high country who admires her. The mare sometimes mixes with a band of wild horses. When she goes missing the squatter is accused of stealing her. Things happen, the mare goes off on her own and raises a colt in seclusion. Later the mare dies and the young horse grows up on his own, eventually challenging the stallion of the wild band, drawing attention of a ranch hand who recognizes he must be the offspring of the missing mare. This guy determines that catching the young stallion and showing it to the ranch owner will exonerate the squatter- plus acquiring himself a fine horse. His plan to catch the wild black horse does not turn out so easily.

I was skeptical of this story at first, but it turned out to be pretty good in the end. While it has a lot of vivid descriptions of the scenery, weather and interactions of various wildlife, much of the animal behavior is exaggerated or downright inaccurate and had me rolling my eyes. For example, wolves don\’t hamstring their prey, and the mating behavior of bears described in here made me laugh outright, it was so ludicrous. It\’s obviously written to be exciting for young readers, with a lot of vicious battles between wild animals for survival, and sensational scenes. The young black horse fights off (at different times) wolves, cougars and a bald eagle, survives an encounter with a bear, and battles another stallion on the edge of a cliff. But then many depictions of how the wild horses live, elk in the rutting season, mule deer interacting with the mare and her colt, are very nicely done. I really found the final third of the book more interesting, when the young stallion had taken over the band but obviously did not know how to lead the mares, and had to face his human opponent.

I happened to like the ending, particularly because it had some unexpected outcomes.

Rating: 3/5 274 pages, 1940

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Animals Fiction, Current Reads, Juvenile Fic, Western

One Good Horse

by Tom Groneberg

I\’m disappointed I didn\’t like this book more. Maybe I was just too tired when I read it- I do remember its predecessor better. It\’s a quiet book, about everyday life for a ranch hand, about accepting that things don\’t always turn out how you imagine, and making the best of it all. Four stories are woven together- mainly the author\’s desire to find a young, untrained horse he can teach himself and his family\’s efforts to adjust when they find out their newborn son -one of twins- has down syndrome. There are also brief segments told from the horse\’s point of view, and an alternate storyline from another book set a century earlier, where a cowboy describes working a cattle drive from Texas to Montana. In all the stories there is a sense of finding one\’s self, of growing into life, of coming to appreciate what you end up with. But it jumped around a bit too much for me between the various threads, I could never settle down and get immersed in the story. I assumed from the title that it was mostly about the relationship between this man and his new horse, about the work it took to teach the horse to be ridden- but really that\’s only a small part of the book. And the horse is calm, accepting, fairly easy to train so there\’s nothing very exciting there. Not even a lot of insight or strong description. It kind of just all washed over me.

My experience was an anomaly- all the other reviews I see of this book rate it highly. I am sorry I didn\’t feel the same way about it. I\’m sure it\’s a good book on its own, and one of those instances where I just read it at the wrong time for me.

Rating 2/5 227 pages, 2006

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Tags: 2/5- Just Okay, Animals Nonfiction, Bios / Memoirs, Western

Give a Man a Horse

by Charles J. Finger

I\’ve been slogging through this book lately, finally decided to just close it. It\’s an older juvenile fiction, one I must have once found at a library sale or free table. An adventure story about a young man named Bob, bored and restless working in an office, who gets sent by his company to oversee the delivery of two valuable horses to a prosperous South American ranch. Of course thing go wrong, starting with horse thieves. He sets off after the thieves with some local volunteers and borrowed horses. Many adventures follow, including a shipwreck, and Bob gets stranded in an area he thinks is uninhabited. He meets up with some natives, goes off travelling with them, finds gold, catches and tames wild horses and so on. Runs into other white men who have made settlements. I did like how the integrity of the characters was shown, but unfortunately never felt invested in any of them as a reader.There was an interesting part where Bob learns how to live among the natives, acquiring skills and realizing that he has much to learn from them. Later (I flipped ahead) one of his native companions ends up in New York City with just as much culture shock on his part – but even that did not interest me enough to finish reading the book. Transitions were abrupt throughout the storyline, and it often switched between character viewpoints as well. I also found the illustrations rather disturbing, although tried to ignore this. Nice linework, but the people and animals sometimes had odd proportions with necks and waists too long. It reminded me of Mannerism.

Oh, and SPOILER both the original horses intended for shipment die early on in the book. I was surprised and disappointed at this, although I guess it was realistic for the circumstances.

Abandoned 340 pages, 1938

Tags: 0/5- Abandoned, Juvenile Fic, Western

Stallions at Burnt Rock

by Paul Bagdon

I was surprised to find myself leaving this book behind. It started out well enough. Once again, the story of a strong woman doing a job commonly thought of as man\’s work, in a bygone era. Lee Morgan runs a horse ranch- breeding, raising and selling horses. She\’s got a dream to create a better strain of stock horses. Jointly with a ranching friend, she comes up with a plan to get attention from buyers by staging a horse race at the upcoming country fair. The fair has always been a quiet, joyful event, but word of the horse race brings gamblers and other unsavory characters into town, trouble brewing.

That\’s when I lost interest. At first I was enjoying this book even more than The Hearts of Horses. It has some beautifully written descriptions of the landscape and the animals themselves. There were some intriguing characters, including a newly-hired horse trainer that Lee takes on (against the better judgement of her colleagues). This guy is good with the horses but something of a loner with a wicked temper that has lost him several jobs… I kept expecting a stereotypical ending here, particularly because the ranch lady, Lee, is a staunch christian (incidentally, organizing a horse race goes against her conscience because of the prospective gambling). So I suspected that Lee was going to convert the horse trainer, and turn his life into roses. Or he was going to step in and rescue the fair from danger and chaos (this thought came up after I read the scene where he rides a horse into the desert and expertly shoots holes in cacti with his cherished gun). Or maybe even he falls in love with Lee and the outcome is something different altogether (she has an apparent love interest in someone else, at the beginning of the novel).

But I didn\’t read far enough to find out, and I was already just skimming pages when the story started to get more wrapped up in the trouble caused by outsiders coming into town, the sheriff trying to keep order, gunfights in the local saloon, etc. Maybe you\’ll be intrigued enough to pick up this book someday and find out what happens. Then you can come back and tell me!

Abandoned 191 pages, 2013

Tags: 0/5- Abandoned, General Fiction, Western

Tag: Western

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