BirdbyBird wrote:Anne, I appreciate you allowing us a glimpse into this fascinating process and evaluation period. Having been exposed to and worked with many breeds of horses over my younger years, what I noticed was that the horse didn't jump out as a particular breed. I had forgotten the reference to "single foot". Besides the pure breed horses (boarders and/or retired show horses) of those years, most of the "school horses" I met and worked with in those younger years came in as mixed breeds and "grade horses." They came in all sizes and shapes and not necessarily the balanced proportions of the finest horse flesh but they were hard working and earned their living honestly. I figured that a cowboy's horse might easily fall into a similar category.
Thanks for your comments, Tina. Being the "wordy" person that I am
I'm going to go a bit into detail below. I know that people like you and Sandi will know and understand all of this horse stuff already - I'm just putting it here for the non-horse-savvy ladies that might be interested, and might be reading along on this thread (thanks for reading, ladies! ).I kind of liked the fact that this particular horse photo did not seem to be of any particular breed. Although in browsing this particular cowboy model and his horse on Shutterstock I am thinking that the horse is a bit "drafty" (LOL - not susceptible to a breeze, but rather has a lot of draft horse blood in him - he/she looks to be a heavy-boned horse).
You are 100% correct in your statement:
BirdbyBird wrote:They came in all sizes and shapes and not necessarily the balanced proportions of the finest horse flesh but they were hard working and earned their living honestly. I figured that a cowboy's horse might easily fall into a similar category.
Likely a cowboy (or anyone else for that matter!) of that era would have whatever horse he could afford. The same being true of anyone who kept horses at that time for whatever purpose. A good horse in those days was relatively expensive - again, because the horse was the primary method of transportation - either by riding or driving (driving meaning pulling a buggy or wagon or some other type of conveyance), the primary "engine" for farming (pulling a plow), the primary "bulldozer" used in logging (pulling logs out of the forest) and just whatever else!
It is no accident that we measure the strength of the mechanical engine in our modern era today by how much "horsepower" it has!
The cowboy in the story is described as a penniless drifter (hrm - is he?
) - who would probably be lucky to be able to own a horse at all.In any case, it might be said that horses of a particular "breed" did not really exist at the time the book takes place. Only horses of a particular "type". Mainly various iterations of "light" horses - as in riding horses (both large and small), and various iterations of "heavy" horses - as in draft horses (also both large and small).
The Budweiser Clydesdales would be a modern example of the draft horse.
Breed "registeries" (that more precisely define various horse breeds - and maintain a "purebred" stud book of their chosen breed) didn't come into existence until maybe a half-century or so after the story takes place. So, technically speaking, there really weren't any pure bred horses of that era, at least as we understand them today.
I have always been a big fan of the west - in books, films, paintings, short stories, and just traveling through western landscapes. In view of the outsize influence that "The Western" has had on American culture, people today don't often realize how very short this era truly was. Only about 30 years or so. The settling of the West happened fast. A person who was already an adult in those times would have lived through it's beginning - and it's end.
For those here that might be interested in this era of American history (I am!) I would like to make two very strong recommendations:
1. The book, "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee" by Dee Brown. Non-fiction, told from the perspective of the Native American. The book is searing and extremely tragic - and a difficult read because of this. But well worth anyone's time. I recommend it highly.
https://www.amazon.com/Bury-My-Heart-Wounded-Knee-ebook/dp/B009KY5OGC/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2BGY96W5C5LSP&keywords=bury+my+heart+at+wounded+knee&qid=1572110592&sprefix=bury+my+he%2Caps%2C231&sr=8-1
2. "The West", a 9-part documentary film from Ken Burns. I absolutely loved this documentary, and savored every single moment of it. Still and all, it was, like "Knee" often difficult to watch - and by the end I was emotionally drained, and in tears:
https://www.amazon.com/The-People/dp/B0090X4BUI/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=the+west&qid=1572110823&s=movies-tv&sr=1-2
(a person might be able to find it on a local PBS station - or elsewhere - but here it is on Amazon, in all it's glory):
Thanks again, Tina for your thoughtful comments. Very much appreciated.
Anne
