Post by SpottedPony on May 29, 2010 13:25:42 GMT -8
Horses in Western Fan Fiction—An Essay
By
Spotted Pony
I’ve been reading a lot of western fan fiction, Bonanza in particular and I have found that a lot of writers have incorrect or mistaken information about horses. As a horsewoman of 30+ years of experience and as a graduate of an equestrian college, the accuracy of a writer’s horse knowledge can make or break a story for me. With this essay, I hope to create a primer that a western writer can refer to and get their horse related facts correct and not ruin an other wise well crafted story. If anyone has questions not covered in this essay, I will be glad to answer them. I don’t claim to know everything, and if I don’t know I can find out. If you have a question or would like me to ‘vet’ the portions of your story relating to horses, horse care and horsemanship, I’ll be glad to help. Also feel free to make a hard copy of this essay to use as a reference.
The first point I’m going to discuss is sex, the sex of horses, that is. Horses come in three sexes; stallions, geldings and mares. Stallions are the breeding males. They have all of their ‘equipment’, their testicles. Geldings are males who have had their ‘equipment’ removed; the removal of said equipment generally makes the gelding calmer and more manageable than a stallion. A mare is a female.
Other terminology to know would include the terms for horses of different sexes and ages. A baby horse nursing on its mother is called a suckling or a foal. When the mare and foal are separated from each other at about six months, the foal is known as a weanling. At a year of age, the young horse is known as a yearling, at two it is a two-year- old and so on. An entire male horse four years and under is referred to as a colt. Over four and he is more properly referred to as a horse, stallion or stud-if he is used for breeding. A female four and under is referred to as a filly. Over four and she is a mare, if she is used mainly for breeding she would be a broodmare.
A castrated male of any age is a gelding. Castration is when the testicles are removed. The testicles are the only part of the colt’s male equipment that is removed. Sometimes when being gelded, some testicular tissue may be missed which would result in causing stud like behavior in a gelding. A gelding retaining testicular tissue is referred to as being proud-cut. Also if a colt has a retained testicle that the person doing the gelding couldn’t get at, he will exhibit stallion like behaviors, however, he will be infertile. Most people of the time referred to all young horses less than four years of age as colts regardless of the actual sex of the animal. Even today, some ‘old timers’ still refer to all young horses as colts. Young horses would have been branded as yearlings, at the same time the colts would have been castrated. Then at four, the young horses would be brought in and broke to saddle or harness.
Now geldings are the mounts of choice for most cowboys of the time. A gelding is generally calmer and not as easily distracted as stallions and mares can be. Although it is glamorous to have your cowboy mounted on a stallion, he’d tell you it would be more of a pain in the neck. Stallions, unless they are kept firmly in line, can be easily distracted by other horses, especially mares in season. They may also be inclined to fight with geldings and other stallions if there are mares present. So they would have to be stabled and turned out separately from other horses. Also a stallion used for breeding would be unavailable for work for part of the year. He would be running with a band of mares in the spring until all the mares were bred, depending on location, he may be with the mares from April to August. Then too if the cowboy is riding a stallion through territory where wild horses roam, he runs the risk of his stallion getting loose and going after wild mares or having a wild stallion turn up with the intention of driving off a possible rival.
He would have similar problems with a mare. During the breeding season, mares cycle, and at certain points of this cycle, they are very attractive to stallions. A wild stallion will be attracted to a mare in season and would try to steal her. Mares can also suffer from the equine form of PMS. They can be moody, cranky and down right hard to manage at some point in their cycles. On the other hand some mares have no problems and the only way to know if they are in season is if there is a male horse around. Some mares when in season can drive even geldings bats in their desire to be bred. If a mare does get bred, she can be ridden and worked lightly up to shortly before she foals. After she foals, she won’t be worked until the foal is weaned. The gestation period for a mare is about 11 months. During the winter months a mare usually doesn’t cycle, this is to prevent foals from being born in winter weather conditions that they couldn’t possibly survive. So Christmas or winter foals would be extremely rare for the time and place. Twin foals are very rare and survive today only because of advanced medical care and feeding. Twins born at the time of Bonanza would have no chance of surviving.
My second point concerns size. Horses are measured in hands, one hand equals four inches, with height increases in one inch increments, example; 14.0h is 56 inches tall, 14.1h is 57 inches, 14.2h is 58 inches, 14.3h is 59 inches, and 15.0h is 60 inches or 5 feet, and so on. For those who use metrics, 1 inch = 2.5 centimeters, 2 inches = 5.0 centimeters, 3 inches = 7.5 centimeters, 4 inches or 1 hand =10.0 centimeters. So a horse 160 centimeters at the withers will be 16.0 hands. A horse 162.5 centimeters will be 16.1 hands, 165 centimeters will be 16.2 hands, 167.5 centimeters will be 16.3 hands, and 170 centimeters will be 17.0 hands. The measurement is taken from the top of the shoulder where the mane ends to the ground. The horses of the time and location were small, ranging from 13.0h to 16.0h. Even big guys like Hoss Cartwright could ride the smaller horses provided that it was sufficient build, stocky or stout, with good bone structure. But in any case they wanted a horse that he would look good on, so he rides a horse closer to 16.0h than 13.0h.
Another reason for riding shorter horses is that cowboys had to be able to get on and off quickly and easily. It’s hard to mount a horse quickly where the stirrup is waist high or higher. Anything over 16.0h is highly unlikely for the time. A 22.0h mustang is impossible. Currently the tallest horse on record is a draft horse gelding who is 19.1h or 6 feet 5 inches. A 22.0h mustang wouldn’t be able to survive, not enough feed in the wild and ranchers wouldn’t be inclined to allow an animal that big around, especially if it were a stallion. In the first place, no one would have tack to fit it, either saddles or harnesses. And in second place, if it were a stallion, it most likely would be shot because of the trouble it would cause, mainly destruction of property when it tears down fences to get at mares and possible death or injury to anyone foolish enough to try to handle it. Also any of the breeds or types of horses available at the time weren’t any where near that size, even draft breeds weren’t much over 16.0h.
The third point concerns horse colors. The base colors are separate from white markings on face and legs and Pinto/Paint and Appaloosa patterns. In general, for storytelling purposes, there are three basic horse colors; black, bay, and chestnut, and except for gray, other colors are modifications of those three colors. A horse may look black, if there is brown or red on the face or flanks, the horse is a dark bay or chestnut. Blacks, like the horse James West on the Wild Wild West rides, can also fade from the sun and look bay. Joe Cartwright’s Cochise is a black pinto.
A bay has a body color of golds, browns and reds, which can range from very dark to light with black points. A bay must have these black points, a black mane, tail and black legs. Hoss Cartwright’s Chubb has brown on his face and red brown on his sides, and because he has the black points, he is a bay.
Chestnut horses have body colors of browns, reds and golds. The manes and tails of chestnuts are the same color as the body and can be a few shades lighter or darker. A chestnut can never have black mane, tail or legs. Both of the horses Adam Cartwright rides are chestnuts. This red form of chestnut is also known as sorrel. Hoss’ filly June Bug was a golden chestnut.
The modifiers are the cream, dun and roan genes. The cream in black causes smoky black, in bay-buckskin, and chestnut becomes palomino. The dun factor causes stripes on the legs and a line down the back and across the shoulders. A black dun is called a grulla; it’s described as being mouse colored. Then you have bay duns and chestnut duns. Duns are often called linebacks. It is a common color of mustangs. Ben Cartwright’s Buck is either a buckskin or a bay dun. A roan has white hair mixed in with the dark hair over the entire body. A lot of white hair makes a light roan and less makes a dark roan. A black with the roan gene is called a blue roan, a bay roan is called a red roan and a chestnut roan is called a strawberry roan.
Gray doesn’t modify the above colors; instead it kills the horse’s color. A gray horse will start out with one of the above colors, and with each time it sheds it loses color until it becomes totally white. It will change to steel gray, then dark dapple, light dapple, flea bitten, and then white. This process may take up to ten years. It is very rare for a horse to be born pure white.
The white markings on the horse’s face are; a star-a white spot between the eyes, stripe-a line of white extending from the eyes toward the nostrils, snip-white between and below the nostrils. A blaze is white extending from above the eyes, down the face, to the nostrils and below. Sport, Chubb, and Cochise all have blazes. One of the horses ridden by Artemus Gordon in The Wild, Wild West had unusual facial markings. It was a chestnut with a star and a stripe and a stripe and a snip. Very unusual. A bald horse has a blaze that extends out to include one or both eyes. The eyes in the white areas of a bald faced horse are often blue.
The leg markings are socks, which come just above the fetlock joint, and stockings go up to the knees and hocks. The first Sport had three stockings and a sock while the second Sport had four stockings.
Not being a Pinto/Paint person, I’m not that familiar with identifying these patterns. Even Pinto/Paint people have trouble correctly determining what pattern a particular horse may be. These patterns are Frame, Overo, Tobano, and Sabino. To make matters worse, the patterns may be combined on one horse. The term Piebald refers to a black and white Pinto, while Skewbald refers to any other color and white; bay and white, chestnut and white, dun and white, etc.
The most common Appaloosa patterns are leopard-white body with dark oval or egg shaped spots, blanket-dark body with white over the back and hips with or without oval or egg shaped spots of the same body color within the white, and snowflake-dark body color with small white spots like snowflakes scattered over the body. Appaloosas and Pinto/Paints can be any of the above colors. To learn more about colors and patterns of horses go here www.equinecolor.com/ or here members.aol.com/battyatty/ .
The fourth point concerns breeds. Most ranches used or raised Mustangs, Morgans, Quarter Horses, some Arabs and Thoroughbreds. After the Civil War more Thoroughbreds came west along with Walking Horses and Saddlebreds. Mustangs, Morgans, Quarter Horses and Arabs were small breeds at the time, none over 15.0h. Draft breeds would have been used more in the cities shifting freight through the streets rather than being used for ranch work or hauling freight between towns. Heavy work such as moving freight, farm type work, and logging would have been done by mules or oxen. Mules are produced by crossing a Mammoth donkey jack with a mare. Mules are incapable of reproducing and are stronger and more sensible then the average horse. Mules come in the same colors and patterns as horses.
The fifth point concerns vocalization. Contrary to what you hear on the TV and in the movies, horses are not noisy creatures. A horse in a team pulling a stagecoach at a gallop isn’t going to waste energy on whinnying and other vocalizations.
Neighs and whinnies are loud and high pitched, with the horse holding it’s head up, face nearly horizontal, a horse is saying; ‘where are you,’ ‘here I am,’ ‘who are you,’ and ‘where’s my dinner.’ A nicker is softer with the head held with the face near vertical and the horse is saying; ‘hello,’ ‘ how are you,’ ‘do you have something for me,’ and general friendly conversation and greetings. Squeals are heard when horses are playing or when they are greeting each other.
When a stallion is teasing a mare, the mare will squeal to indicate whether or not she is ready to accept the stallion. Also mares do not whinny and carry on when giving birth. They are very quiet and you can be nearby and not know that the foal has arrived until you look. A few years ago, one of my mares was soon to foal. That morning my dad went into town before 10:00am, I left to go to the bank at 10:30am, and my mom was hanging up clothes about 100 feet from where this mare was in the pasture. The driveway runs past the pasture and as my dad returned home at 10:45am, the mare was by herself in the pasture. At 11:00am when I returned home, the mare had just foaled. The mare had yet to get up. My mom and dad were at the clothesline talking and didn’t believe me that the mare had foaled until I drug them down the road to see the mare and foal. She had foaled in less than 15 minutes and they hadn’t heard a thing, even though they were in sight and within earshot.
A stallion will scream to alert his mares to trouble and to warn off rivals. Horses snort to clear their sinuses and to indicate fear or interest in something. A similar sound is made when a horse sees something it is uncertain or wary of. It is through the nose like a snort, but is more of a rattling sound. So if you are going to have a horse spook and run off, have him snort, rather than whinny before running off.
The sixth point involves tack. The first piece of tack is a halter. A halter along with a lead rope is used to safely move a horse from place to place and to secure the horse when it isn’t being ridden. A horse when out on the trail, would be staked out or tied to a picket line with his halter, you don’t tie a horse out over night with a bridle. Of the bridle, the headstall is the part that holds the bit in the horse’s mouth. The curb strap attaches to the bit and runs under the chin. The reins are the straps that are fastened to the bit so that the rider can control the horse. There are two types of reins used by cowboys. The first type are split reins consisting of two pieces of leather about five to six feet long. The cowboy will drop the ends to the ground to ground tie his horse. A curb bit is what bit would be used with this bridle. The second type of reins are called romal reins. These reins are made up of leather or rawhide strings worked into a round braid. Each end attaches to the bit. At the center of the braid, where the cowboy holds it, is attached another round braid, to be used as a quirt. Both the reins and quirt are often decorated with a series of woven knots. The headstall will also be decorated with these knots also. Instead of ground tying a horse being ridden with romal reins, the cowboy will hobble him instead. In town he would bring the reins over the horse’s head. A fancy spade bit, a very severe bit, is used with romal reins. Cowboys using romal reins would be found in southern California or in western Mexico.
As for saddles you have western saddles, English saddles, and sidesaddles. Western saddles of that time were heavy, around forty pounds. They had to be sturdy and strong to take the strain of the work the cowboy did. It is my understanding that new western saddles were difficult and somewhat painful for the cowboy to ride in until it was broken in, and given a choice he would rather have a used saddle rather than a new one. The leathers, the part that attaches the stirrups to the saddle is of one piece with the fenders, the piece of leather that protects the sides of the horse and keeps the riders legs from the horse’s sweat. Once the length of the leathers is determined, it is secured by a special buckle or by buckskin lacing. They can’t be adjusted from the saddle like the stirrups on an English saddle can. It is not an easy job to replace the leathers and fenders, and if done as a joke, the owner of the saddle would realize it immediately, the color of the replacements would be different as would the patterns carved into the leather, also new leather would be stiffer and look different from the old, and wear marks from the buckles would also be missing. A western saddle may have one or two cinches. The back cinch is to hold the back of the saddle down when roping. A breast collar helps keep the saddle secure, especially on a horse with poor withers, as will a crupper. A crupper goes under the tail and is secured to the back of the saddle to keep it from riding forward. Most often used on mules and pack horses.
The English saddle as seen in the Bonanza episode, The Hayburner, was correct for the time. Forward seat saddles and ‘postage stamp’ racing saddles weren’t developed until the early 20th century. English saddles are much lighter than western saddles. They are secured to the horse by a girth that buckles in two places on each side to the saddle. The stirrups are secured to the saddle by one inch wide strips of leather with a buckle on one end and holes on the other end. The rider while on the horse can easily change the length of English stirrup leathers.
Now on to sidesaddles. The impression I’ve gotten from some fanfics, is that the authors believe that the sidesaddle riders of the time were only older ladies on very calm horses, and they never went faster than a slow walk. Not true at all. Most ladies of the time, and most who weren’t ladies rode sidesaddle. At the time it wasn’t proper for a lady to ride astride, at least where she could be seen. Any thing that can be done while riding astride a horse can also be done riding sidesaddle. That includes roping and jumping. The outlaw Belle Star rode sidesaddle. Women went on cattle drives riding sidesaddle and bucked out unruly horses in a sidesaddle. Queen Victoria rode sidesaddle as did Elizabeth, Empress of Austria. Elizabeth was renowned in the hunt field for her riding and jumping abilities in a sidesaddle. It is said she was less concerned about falling than she was about scratching her face. She was considered one of the best riders in Europe, if not in the world and it was said of her that she looked like an angel and rode like the devil, no woman and very few men could match her. And she wasn’t riding older or calm horses. Here is a sidesaddle web site to help you out. www.sidesaddle.com/ . This web site will also tell you the proper attire for sidesaddle riding of the period along with pictures of modern sidesaddle riders and book lists and forums for questions about sidesaddle riding.
If you know how to ride and have a sensible horse, getting started riding sidesaddle is rather easy. I tried sidesaddle for the first time at a show. A friend brought an extra sidesaddle and habit in the hopes of finding someone willing to try and to help fill the class, and I was happy to give it a try. My horse, while a calm and sensible sort, was not and had never been a beginner’s horse or a packer. We put the saddle on her and lunged her in both directions at the walk, trot and canter. I then got on and was soon working at all three gaits. The next day we went in a sidesaddle class. I would like to learn how to jump, but my saddle is very old and not sturdy enough for jumping, and I can’t afford a better sidesaddle at this time.
So don’t be afraid to put your lady riders in a sidesaddle and send them out on the range. Remember, while the men were away on cattle drives and such, the ranch still needed looking after, and if something needed to be done, it would have been up to the rancher’s wife and daughters to see that things got done just as the rancher and any sons would have done.
The seventh point is about the paces or gaits of horses. Hunter type horses do the walk, trot and canter. Western horses walk, jog/trot and lope. Don’t confuse the way of going you see at a modern Quarter Horse or other western horse shows with how western horses of the 19th century moved. Modern show ring pleasure gaits for western horses are to be as slow as possible. Back in the 1800’s a cowboy wanted to get where he was going in a reasonable time, he wanted a horse that could move out so he could get where he needed to be, get his work done and get back to the bunkhouse before dark. In other words, he wanted a horse that could move out quietly at a good brisk pace.
Other gaits are the pace, stepping pace or slow gait, the rack, the running walk, and the Indian shuffle. With the exception of the pace, these gaits are smooth and easy on both the horse and rider. The pace and the trot were performed by Standardbreds, a breed used for light harness work and racing in harness. The stepping pace or slow gait and rack, along with the walk, trot and canter were performed by the Saddlebred. The Walking Horse gaits were the walk, the running walk, and the canter. Until they went west, Saddlebreds and Walking Horses were ridden in English saddles. The Appaloosa had individuals who could do the Indian shuffle. There are other gaits, but these would have been the most commonly known gaits for horses at the time.
Another factor is speed. A horse is not a car and can’t go at the faster speeds, gallop or lope, for long periods of time without having to slow down or stop to blow. A modern racehorse can do a racing gallop at a rate of about 43 miles an hour. However, they can’t hold that pace for more than a few minutes, say no more than 5 minutes at a time. So no racing your horses cross-country for hours at a time. A modern well-conditioned endurance horse can do 100 miles in one day in about 11 hours, at a steady lope/canter, not including mandatory rest stops. Western riders in the 1800’s weren’t in that much of a hurry, so a rate of 7 or 8 miles an hour depending on the terrain, at a lope should be about right. A trot/jog would be about 5 to 6 miles an hour and a walk would be around 4 miles an hour, again depending on the terrain.
The eighth point is about driving horses. Driving horses is more dangerous than riding. Runaways pulling a vehicle of some sort can cause more damage then a runaway riding horse. And a team can cause more damage than a single. Horses are driven by a driver seated on the right hand side of the vehicle, the reason for this is because the whip would be carried in the right hand, if the driver was on the left hand side, he would be digging his right elbow in the side of his passenger whenever he need to use the whip.
A single horse is hooked to the carriage by means of a set of shafts, a curved wooden pole on either side of the horse. A pair is hooked to a carriage, one on either side of a pole. A team of four horses consists of a wheel pair, the pair nearest the vehicle and a lead pair in front. A team of six or more would consist of a wheel team, one or more swing teams and a lead team. Generally horses in harness work at a walk or trot. They may canter up hills. Horses pulling a stage would work at a canter or gallop simply because of the stage’s time schedule. Stage horses would be changed every 10 to 15 miles.
A single horse and a pair are driven with a single set of reins. Teams of four or more would have a set of reins for each pair. With two pairs the driver would have to handle two sets of reins, three pairs would have three sets of reins, and so on.
Each pair would be matched as to size and way of going. A fancier pair for carriage use would also be matched for conformation, color and markings also.
The ninth point concerns breaking horses. Wranglers of the time didn’t have time to really gentle a horse like we do today. Breaking would consist of roping the horse and choking it down and tying it to a pole or by throwing it to its side, working the saddle on and riding it until it gave up bucking. The horse may also be blindfolded or hobbled before the horse breaker mounts. It isn’t likely that unbroken horses were mounted from a chute as I have seen a couple of times on Bonanza. That was done to make it easier on the horses and the stuntmen doing the riding. Also, you’ll notice the ‘wild’ horses are wearing bucking straps, not something that would be needed on a true wild unbroken horse.
A horse to be broken to harness would have the harness put on it and it would then be hitched to a calm horse to learn from it. Of course there would be special horses that would be gentled, such as Hoss’ filly June Bug. It would depend on how much time the wrangler had and the need for working stock. Also many cowboys liked to have the horses they rode unwind with a few bucks when first mounted. It showed that the horse had spirit and was ready to work. Just don’t buck your horse out too close to the cook fire; the other cowboys won’t appreciate it.
The tenth point is general information. Cowboys often wore spurs, and some sets of spurs could be considered works of art. Some are plain and others are fancy and some have bells or jingles on them. Listen to Festus on Gunsmoke as he walks by, he has jingles on his spurs. The jingles are helpful when riding around a herd of cattle at night. They alert the cattle to the approach of a rider and help prevent the cattle from spooking, that’s also why cowboys would sing to the cattle while riding herd at night. Spurs are used to send more refined signals to the horse. Some can be rather nasty, but it depends on the cowboy using them.
Ropes were generally made of fiber and were about 20’ to 30’ long and were tied hard and fast to the saddle horn. Braided rawhide raitas were much longer about 50’ to 60’ long and were dallied to the saddle horn. Raitas were used by the cowboys of southern California and western Mexico.
Other terms to know are nearside and offside, left side and right side, respectively. One mounts and dismounts on the near or left side, but it is also a good idea to be able mount and dismount on the off or right side. The reason for this is on a narrow mountain trail, there may not be any ground for the cowboy to mount or dismount from.
There is a difference between forelocks and fetlocks. A forelock is the part of the horse’s mane that starts between the horse’s ears and falls on the horse’s face. The fetlock is the first joint above the horse’s hoof. Every horse has four fetlocks. The parts of the fore/front leg are the hoof, pastern, fetlock, cannon bone, knee, forearm, and elbow. The parts of the hind/back leg are hoof, pastern, fetlock, cannon bone, hock, gaskin, and stifle. The flanks are the soft area between the ribs and thighs and below the point of the hip. The only way a rider can kick a horse in the flanks is if he or she is riding double behind the saddle. Instead of having your rider kick his horse in the flanks to make it go or urge it on, have him kick the horse in the ribs or sides.
Horses hoofs are just like our fingernails, they need trimmed at regular intervals, generally every 6 to 8 weeks, and shoes replaced or reset. Indians didn’t shoe their horses, so when tracking ridden horses, if they were unshod, then they were likely to be Indian ponies. Lameness can be caused by improper hoof care. An unshod hoof that isn’t kept trimmed can have chunks of hoof wall break off and split causing the horse to be lame until trimmed or grown out. A horse can step on and pull off a loose or badly fitted shoe tearing away part of the hoof wall causing lameness. Stones and such could also get wedged under loose shoes and cause problems. Both shod and barefoot horses can get small stones wedged in their hoof s and step on things causing stone bruises. A stone bruise can be corrected by cutting it out at the bottom and treating it or soaking the hoof until it bursts out at the top. In any case, once the pressure is relieved; the horse is sound and can be ridden.
Grooming a horse consists of using a currycomb in the areas behind the ears and above the knees and hocks to get rid of dirt and mud, especially in the saddle and girth areas. Various brushes are used on the body; face and legs to further clean the horse. Then the mane and tail is brushed out and the hoofs cleaned with a hoof pick.
I hope this article will be helpful in writing fanfics with better horse information.