Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Need help with Cowboy Lingo

This is a question about horses. I'm sure if I went back and watched enough Rawhide reruns, I'd have an answer, but I figure this is quicker.

You're on a cattle drive. At night, the horses need to be secured while the men rest. A rope would be stretched between trees and the horses hitched to that rope to keep them from wandering off.

What I'm looking for is the terminology used to describe the horizontal rope and the process of tethering the horses.

Many thanks in advance.

Picket line?

That's right.

Always heard it called a high line or picket line.

More times than not though, instead of a picket line, they would use a rope corral, or hobbles.

depended on the outfit and their number of horses in the remuda.

Picket line. That's what I was looking for.

Remuda is another term I was thinking about.

Thanks everyone.

A high line is above the horses' heads. It allows them more movement and they can turn completely around.
A picket line is about chest high. It reduces their movement and you can get more horses in a given space. Sometimes they'll alternate sides with the horses to give them more room.

I've never used a picket line much.

Have used a single picket stake driven into the ground, or tied to a log more.

Being horses, you can always count on something going wrong, and a wreck, though...

I'm trying to describe a situation where a group of 5 men is trying to make contact with reinforcements coming on foot. They set off with 24 mounts and a pony cart for gear and move towards the rendezvous point. This on a long stretch of beach, with numerous soft marshy stretches. Rather than risk everything bogging down, scouts are set out to make contact while the rest of the party stays back.

I was stuck trying to describe how the horses were temporarily tied up. Thanks.

Now if you want to keep the horses spaced along the high-line/picket-line. This will work:

NICE hitch !

That's SO close to what I call a "taught line hitch" but not quite.

Have a name for it ?

GTC

Mornin' Rattle Shaker !

Have you got a copy of "Horses, Hitches, and Rocky Trails" by Joe Back ?

Good source of some fairly mossy savvy, that one.

GTC

Highline if trees are used and the line is above head high. If there's a single animal tethered, it has room to travel the length. Usually they will pick one end or another for a bathroom. Less impact on a given area as well, as opposed to simply tethering to a tree or stake.

Picket line if posts or stakes are employed. Typically not much freedom of movement.

This seems like a good a time as any to ask a question that I,ve had since I was 6 or 7 yrs. old. Throughout my life when watching westerns, whether on T.V. or a well produced movie, when the cowboys would pull up and dismount anywhere they would almost always only flip the rein once over the hitching post or whatever. Not secured at all. I had always assumed early on that was because the horses were well trained and would not wander off. I'm 60 now and still notice it in westerns and still wondering if there is a reason you don't tie them securely, or if it's just a TV/Movie thing?

John

Being perhaps the world's most "un-horsey" person, that has always caught my attention as well. Just wondered it again last night when watching "The Rifleman" and Lucas more or less threw his reins at a scrub bush. (He also mounted from the right when he was heading out of town.)

You never TIE a horse with one or two bridle reins. Inevitably something will spook even the best trained horse. He will shy, and break the bridle or reins. Then the rider will be s**t outa luck for any future riding.

A cowboy keeps a lead rope tied around his pony's neck. That is used for hitching. Or, if the horse is well trained, he is ground hitched. That means the reins are simply dropped on the ground, and the horse is trained to "stay".

My pony, when I was young man, would ground hitch for hours while I did chores and irrigated. He never moved more than a very few feet to crop a bit of grass.

Unbeknownst to most non-horsey types is that in the old west, cowboys had assistants known as "wranglers" who took care of their horses while they went into saloons, sheriff offices, and general stores. Wranglers also kept six shooters loaded during gun fights so the cowboy could concentrate on shooting the rocks all around the bad guy.

Unfortunately for history, all footage showing wranglers was left on the editor's floor.

Mounted from the right side:

A horse pretty much has two brains. A left brain and a right brain.

What you train him to do from the left side must then be retrained from the right side.

It saves time to just train the horse to be approached, saddled, and mounted from the left.

My Dad had a bad left knee. He could only mount from the right side of a horse.

Every horse we ever owned has always been trained to be handled from either side. It takes a bit more time, but results in a much safer animal.

Also, what he's comfortable seeing from one eye may spook the hell out of him if he sees it with the other one. You have to train on both sides and even then you may get surprised.

If you have any horse questions, best bet is to ask any woman horse owner. They are all experts!

"If you have any horse questions, best bet is to ask any woman horse owner. They are all experts."

Now that right there is a true statement!