Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Horse Lover's Companion

by Bathroom Readers' Institute

  Even more telling are the statues that don’t meet the criteria—in particular, two statues of George Washington. In both cases, his horse has one hoof raised. But the Founding Father died in 1799 at his Mount Vernon home. His cause of death: a throat infection unrelated to his military service. Thus, his horse should have had four feet on the ground.

  Likewise, Andrew Jackson’s statue in Lafayette Park has both legs raised (symbolizing he died in battle), yet he too died at home after retiring from military service. There are statues of Andrew Jackson in Louisiana and Florida that have hooves raised as well.

  A statue of Confederate general Stonewall Jackson shows his horse standing erect even though Jackson died in May 1863 after being wounded by his own men. And John J. Pershing’s statue in Washington, D.C., has one foot in the air. Pershing, however, was not wounded in battle.

  Uncovering the Myth

  No one knows for sure how the horse-hooves legend got started, but there is a long tradition of reading meaning into statues’ poses. In fact, in England, there is a theory (also false) that the position of arms and legs (crossed or uncrossed) in the statues of English knights identifies them as crusaders (or not) and identifies the number of crusades they participated in.

  It seems, though, that the position of horses’ legs in statues of American soldiers has more to do with the artist’s skill and creative vision than with the way the honoree died. Sculptors have other, more practical factors to consider when designing and executing their monuments. Creating an equestrian statue, for example, is hard work—rearing horse statues are especially difficult because all the weight has to be balanced on the horse’s hind legs. In fact, it wasn’t until 1852 that equestrian statues even appeared in the United States. The first? Sculptor Clark Mills’s Washington, D.C., statue of Andrew Jackson . . . astride a rearing horse.

  Social Climbers

  Before there were automobiles, horses pulled fire engines, and the animals were usually stabled on a fire station’s ground floor. The animals could climb straight stairways, though, and because firemen didn’t want them making visits to the upper floors, firehouses started installing circular stairways.

  Dude, Where’s My Horse?

  For more than a century, city slickers have been able to enjoy unspoiled nature, learn new skills, and experience thrills and spills on the back of a horse. All they had to do was sign up for a vacation at a dude ranch.

  Teddy Roosevelt Was Some Dude

  In 1865, the Civil War finally over, the united country turned its attention to the empty lands out west, and by the 1880s, wealthy urbanites from eastern cities were taking hunting, fly-fishing, and sight-seeing trips there. Theodore Roosevelt headed to North Dakota, where he bought and worked the Maltese Cross Ranch. Even after he became president in 1901, Roosevelt’s enthusiasm for the West never left him, and his stories of rugged ranch life inspired a whole generation of eastern “dudes” to spend their vacations ranching.

  Around the turn of the 20th century, the romance of horses and cowboys took hold. By the 1920s, the railroads were bringing droves of tourists as far south as Texas and as far west as California. As writers inspired travelers with romantic tales of the region, practical ranchers found a way to keep going when extreme weather, wildfires, and falling cattle prices harmed their profits: they built cabins and hosted trail rides and amateur cattle drives on their properties.

  The popularity of these ranches (dubbed “dude” ranches because the term was once slang for a well-dressed man who vacations in the country) continued to grow. And today, they’re common vacation sites where suburban families and real urbanites can put on their chaps, take roping lessons, and explore the cowboy lifestyle.

  Dudes Down Under

  Over the years, dude ranching also spread to far points of the globe—especially Australia and Argentina, where the ranching and cowboy lifestyles still thrive. Visitors to Australia vacation on huge cattle stations that can cover as many as 1 million acres of rough terrain where thousands of cattle graze on the stubby grass.

  Escott Station, at the edge of the Gulf of Carpentaria in Queensland, is a place where animals roam amid mango trees for over 1,000 square miles. There, tender-feet must be prepared for rough-and-ready riding if they want to help muster the cattle for branding or shipping to the market. Escott Station also boasts horses who aren’t yet broken, and because Aussie ranches don’t have the same insurance liability issues that American ranches do, vacationing dudes can work with the untamed animals.

  Ranching with the Gauchos

  In the 1600s and 1700s, immigrants from France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal came to Argentina, bringing horses and cattle with them. Some animals escaped from their owners and survived on the country’s vast pampas—lush lowlands filled with few trees. The population of free horses and cattle on the pampas grew so large that, by the 1700s, gauchos (an Indian term meaning “orphans” or “vagabonds”) roamed the region, capturing cattle for food and horses for transportation. As the pampas were settled, gauchos started living a nomadic life similar to the cowboys of the American West, working from season to season on the large ranches that spread across Argentina’s cattle country.

  Today, gauchos still work these ranches (called estancias), and many of them take paying guests. On an estancia like Santa Candida on the Uruguay River near Buenos Aires, descendants of Argentina’s oldest families—some in the fifth and sixth generation—still hold 1 million acres of land and run thousands of head of cattle. In the more remote Patagonia estancias, at the foot of the Andes, transportation by horse is still a way of life, and vacationers help the gauchos herd cattle.

  Scary!

  The persistent fear of horses is called “equinophobia.”

  Lost Breeds, Part 2

  Here are two more horse breeds lost to history.

  The Norfolk Trotter

  The Norfolk trotter first appeared in England around 1750. The animals were known as “travel” horses because they could carry heavy riders for long distances at a fairly fast pace (about 17 mph). They could travel over just about any terrain and were also used as warhorses.

  Variously known as the Norfolk roadster and the Yorkshire trotter, this breed was the progeny of a racehorse descended from the Darley Arabian.

  In 1822, the Norfolk trotter came to America and, through selective breeding with Thoroughbred foundation sires, produced a number of other famous breeds: the standardbred, the Hackney, the Shales, and the Missouri fox trotter. No one knows exactly when the Norfolk trotter became extinct, but crossbreeding continued to dilute the bloodline until the original breed was lost.

  The Yorkshire Coach

  The Yorkshire coach was born from crossing Cleveland bays and Thoroughbreds to produce stronger, faster, more elegant carriage horses. Cleveland bays weren’t fast or stylish enough for this prestigious position, but they had an exceptional disposition. Thoroughbreds were considered prettier, faster, and classier, but much too temperamental to be carriage horses. So breeders crossed the two to get the best characteristics of both. The Yorkshire coach was the result and became the preferred breed for carriage horses—especially in 18th-century London.

  Colorful coaches, drivers, and horses decorated the city’s Hyde Park in those days, and the Yorkshire coach made quite an impression. The breed was handsome—typically brown or bay with a thick mane and tail, black eyes, and lengthy quarters. They stood 16 to 16.2 hands tall and high-stepped with grace and pride, almost excessively prim and proper, even by the standards of the day.

  This is another breed that was lost through crossbreeding, but its foundation breeds still exist. So Yorkshire coach horses could be reintroduced, if someone were inclined to make the effort.

  For more extinct horses, turn to page 23.

  Bad Boys (and Girls) of the Rodeo

  Meet three of the sport’s greats.

  The Bulldogger

  In 1971, Bill Pickett was the first African American inducted into the National Rodeo Hall of
Fame in Oklahoma. More than 75 years after his death, he is still recognized as one of rodeo’s greatest innovators.

  Learning the ropes: Pickett was born in Texas in 1870. He became a ranch worker early on (around the age of 10) and started riding horses about the same time. His big break came in 1905 when he got a job performing in the wildly popular 101 Ranch Wild West Show, which included Buffalo Bill Cody and Will Rogers. Pickett soon became one of the show’s most popular stars.

  Signature move: Pickett pioneered bulldogging (steer wrestling) as a rodeo event. The dangerous activity involved Pickett galloping his horse, Spradley, alongside a longhorn steer and wrestling with the animal until it was under control. One of Pickett’s methods for getting the steer to submit: he bit its upper lip.

  Roundup: Pickett died in 1932 after being kicked in the head by a horse. In 1989, he was inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame and the Museum of the American Cowboy in Colorado. Five years later, the United States Postal Service gave him his own stamp. (But the USPS goofed and used his brother’s picture instead of his.) Pickett’s name is also attached to the only touring rodeo of African Americans in the United States today—the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo.

  The Champion Lady Bucking Horse Rider

  A proud woman who refused to settle for anything (in or out of the rodeo circuit), Lulu Bell Parr kicked up a lot of dust. She was outspoken, a supporter of women’s rights, and one of the most accomplished bucking bronco riders of her time.

  Learning the ropes: Parr was born in 1876 in Indiana, and after her parents split up, she moved west with her father. There, she learned to love horses, and at the age of 27—after divorcing her first husband for what she called “extreme cruelty”—she joined the Pawnee Bill Wild West Show. She stayed for four years (until 1907) and then traveled to Europe as part of Colonel F. T. Cummins’s Wild West Brighten Tour. When she returned to the States in 1910, she joined the Two Bill Show (or, as the combined rodeo extravaganza was formally known, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West–Pawnee Bill’s Far East Show). The show dubbed Parr the “Champion Lady Bucking Horse Rider of the World,” and she dazzled audiences with her act: riding bucking broncos and buffalo, performing tricks, and sharpshooting.

  A noteworthy mention: Parr wasn’t just a rodeo queen. In May 1913, the Hanover (Pennsylvania) Herald profiled her and called her large ranch in Nebraska “one of the most productive in the state.” The paper also noted Parr’s commitment to women’s voting rights: “She . . . is a suffragette in every sense of the word.”

  Roundup: Parr continued to ride with various rodeos until she retired in her 60s. But by then, she was broke (the result of less money being paid out on the dwindling rodeo circuit) and had to move in with her brother and sister-in-law. The three lived in a tar-paper home with no electricity, but Parr still managed to entertain the neighborhood: dressed in her flashy costumes, she dazzled locals with tales of her performing days.

  Lulu Parr died in 1955. She’s buried in Medway, Ohio, and in 2005, she was inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame.

  The Ultimate Cowboy

  Larry Mahan was only 14 in 1957, when he competed in his first rodeo. It was just a kids’ calf-riding competition, but he won it, setting the stage for many more victories. Seven years later, he went pro and, in 1966, won the first of five consecutive all-around championships—the award given to the top-earning member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. He won the title again in 1973, setting a record that stood until Ty Murray bested it in 1994.

  Show him the money: Mahan was the top bull-riding money winner in 1965. And in 1967, he won more than $50,000, the first rodeo rider to do so in a single year. By the time he retired in 1977, he’d taken home $250,000 from rodeos, a record accomplishment at the time.

  Noteworthy mention: Perhaps Mahan’s most notable accomplishment, though, is the fact that he lived his rodeo life for 20 years without sustaining a major injury. Even more impressive: in 1,200 rodeos, Mahan regularly competed in the three most dangerous events—bullriding (which causes half of all rodeo injuries), bareback riding, and saddle bronc riding.

  Roundup: Mahan became one of the modern rodeo’s first stars. In 1973, he was the subject of an Academy Award–winning documentary called The Great American Cowboy. And he released an album in 1976: Larry Mahan, King of the Rodeo. Today, he sells clothes (the Larry Mahan Line of Western wear) and hosts a television program called Equestrian Nation. And he’s been inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame, the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum’s Rodeo Hall of Fame, the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame, and the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame.

  For Horse Lovers Only

  More “you know you’re a horse person when . . .”

  •In the grocery store, you move someone aside by poking them and saying “over.”

  •You walk out in the middle of a movie because the “cowboy” flaps his elbows at the trot.

  •You see a jogger on the street, and think some corrective shoeing might help that hitch in his gait.

  •You’re too sick to work, but think a two-hour ride will do you good.

  •You watched Bonanza as a kid because you had a crush on Michael Landon’s horse.

  •You look at a picture of Santa’s reindeer and think, “They’ll never clear that jump if they don’t pick up their knees.”

  •You buy shirts to match the color of your horse’s slobber.

  •You have a saddle-soap stain on the living room rug.

  •You’re thinking of living in the barn since it’s cleaner than the house.

  •You clean the tack after every ride, but you’ve never washed the car.

  The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of Draft Horses

  On page 114, we’ll tell you about the famous Clydesdales, but draft horses in general have their own story. Fortune and “progress” took them from indispensable to nearly extinct in less than 100 years. Here’s the story of where they came from . . . and how they managed to come back.

  Drafted

  Draft horses developed in north central Europe around AD 1000. Their ancestors were strong, fast warhorses called destriers, who provided the bloodline that produced the “Black Horse of Flanders,” the forerunner of the modern draft breeds.

  Initially, draft horses were used mostly on European farms. Early American colonists used oxen instead—an ox was usually cheaper (about half the cost of a horse), ate less, and, in lean years, could be eaten if necessary. But oxen were slower workers than horses, and their small hooves often left them helpless on America’s marshy northern and eastern terrain. Draft horses, though, had hooves about twice the diameter of riding horses, and they were strong and hardy. So as pioneers moved west, they started taking draft horses with them.

  Draft Horse Heyday

  By the late 1800s, tens of thousands of draft horses had been imported from western Europe and were being bred throughout the United States. Within about a decade, breeders had even created the American cream draft, the first draft horse developed exclusively in the United States.

  Midwestern grain farmers owned an average of 10 draft horses in the early 1900s and used the animals to power plows, combines, and threshing machines. At harvest time, teams of up to 40 draft horses brought in the crop. Draft horses found work on the railroad, too, carrying supplies to the work site and then hauling away the excavated dirt and rock.

  As more people moved to the cities, they needed transportation—and again called on draft horses. More than 100,000 of them powered the horsecar lines that operated in every major American city by the turn of the 20th century. They also pulled steam pumps and ladder trucks used by early fire departments. And many well-to-do city dwellers maintained personal stables with four or six stately draft horses who pulled ornate carriages around town.

  Down But Not Out

  And then came cars, trucks, tractors, and electric streetcars, and draft horses mostly disappeared from view. They continued to thrive in some out-of-the-way places. In the United St
ates, Amish and Mennonite farmers played a big part in keeping many draft horses, especially the Percheron, from extinction. Even today, these farmers own thousands of draft horses who work their fields and pull their carriages.

  Draft horses were key players in World War I, when more than 500,000 were called into service. The heavy horses delivered supplies and ammunition and hauled heavy artillery to the front.

  By the 1960s, draft horses were making a real comeback. The animals are strong and sure-footed, and people soon found new work for them. In particular, they proved to be more efficient than trucks in extracting downed trees and pulling stumps in logging operations. Nowadays, beautiful examples of many breeds—Belgians, Shires, Percherons, Friesians, and others—can be seen at prestigious draft horse shows around the country.

  What a Beauty

  One saving grace for these horses is that they are gentle, friendly, and attractive. Some draft breeds make good riding horses, especially in Western and dressage, and are lauded for their smooth gait. And the long manes and tails and feathered legs of some breeds have even earned them the nickname fairy-tale horses.