Tim Cox "No Matter The Weather" |
Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
Monday, May 20, 2013
Pioneer rancher credits horse with saving his life
...You'd have to go all the way back to the 1800s to come to a full
appreciation of the bond between man and horse in West Texas. Stories
abound of the bonds formed between horses and their riders in the
earliest days of history and Midland was certainly no exception. There
wasn't a race involved, nor was there a game of polo that strengthened
the ties, but simply a story of survival and instinct -- one wrong and
one right. It was 1888, and pioneer rancher O.B. Holt found
himself in a brutal blizzard unable to judge distance or direction
because of the wintry conditions. In an interview with J. Evetts Haley in 1927, now
in the Haley Memorial Library archives, Holt explained his dire, near
death experience and how he showed gratitude to the horse that saved his
life. "I have been lost in snow storms to where I gave up," Holt told Haley. "I had one horse that saved my life." Holt spoke of how, being unable to determine his
whereabouts, he tried to guide his mount in a direction opposite from
where shelter was. The snow was a foot deep and when night hit Holt
guessed he was about 10 miles from his ranch. "I tried to pull him in one direction but he kept
wanting to go in another," Holt said. "I finally gave him his head. I
could hardly get off him when he reached camp. I had two little rooms
and opened the door and let him in. The first thing I did was throw a
suggan (covering) over him. I took him into the kitchen, pulled off the
saddle and kept him there all night." When he sold his ranch, he gave the buyers everything -- except the horse. He would keep it another 25 years...more
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