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Just a Bit About the Bit
A good relationship between the horse and his rider is all about communication. A horse can sense fear, anger and competence, and will react accordingly. However, a good ride whether for work or pleasure, requires effective communication between the horse and rider. Since ancient times the bit, in one form or another, has been the instrument to help send these messages. The horse is the only animal we control by putting something inside their mouth. The ancient man’s experience of controlling a pack or riding animal before the domestication of the horse, was by various forms of nose pressure. This method would not work for the equine as its…
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North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame Celebrates Twenty-five Years
The North Dakota Horizons magazine published a shorter version of “Sentinel on the Prairie” in their Summer 2020 edition and online. https://www.ndhorizons.com/articles/86/north-dakota-cowboy-hall-of-fame-celebrates-25-years.aspx The North Dakota Cowboy Hall of fame is celebrating its 25th anniversary. One man’s dream of preserving the stories and character of the state’s forebears has become a renowned center of western culture. Phil Baird thought about this for a long time. So many stories and moments were passing through time, drifting like the wind across the prairies. Countless hours were spent embracing all the memories and history he could. He hated the thought these stories would be lost to time. Those moments wove together the fabric of…
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Branding Across Time
When thinking of the American West the image of a laconic individual with the requisite boots, chaps, and hat comes to mind. We envision him on long cattle drives, riding along miles and miles of fences or on a great roundup. In our minds we can see the cowboy chasing down a hapless calf, roping and wrestling it to the ground by a campfire with branding irons in the flames. Another cowboy grabs it and burns the owners mark on its hip. It’s all part of the mystique of the cowboy, some of it romanticized in art and the movies; all of it based on reality and much of it…
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Necessities for a Nomadic Life
It was time to move. The young woman took down their tepee and secured the poles to the horses, building the travois’ that would carry the rest of their home and other worldly possessions.
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The Wandering Man
This love affair lasted a lifetime; whether consuming, creating, or collecting, the written word permeated his life. He bragged that between 1928 and 1942 he read more than 150 books a year. He built a personal library of over 10,000 books, journals, and periodicals; a varied collection that surprised and delighted visitors. He was one of the world’s most prolific authors writing poetry, over 400 short stories, screenplays and more than 100 books. Sitting in his sick bed, Louis L’Amour was editing his final book the day he died in 1988. Some discounted his writing as just simple westerns, but his stories perfectly expressed the romance and authenticities of Western…
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The Battle at Guilford Courthouse
On a recent trip to North Carolina I visited the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park with my sister and niece. There is a great deal I don’t know about this time in our nation’s history! So much of our revolutionary war education centers on the north, yet the battles in the south were of tremendous importance. Somewhere in the fight for Independence two centuries ago are two ancestors of mine, Moses Hill and John Gould who was an ancestor of my Grandmother Martell (Lila Vanderhoof). There is also a Morgan on Don’s side who may very well have been in one of these battles since the Morgan’s at that time…
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Straight to the Horse’s Mouth
At first glance, especially to those unfamiliar with all that is involved in horse care, the new exhibit at the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame might look like medieval tools of torture. No need to worry, these old malicious looking implements are just a set of equine dentistry tools from 1904, donated to the hall by the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation. It is believed that equine dentistry practices began about 2000 years ago on the steppes of northeastern Asia and Mongolia by ancient nomads. The horse has the distinction of being the most significant domesticated animal of the past 5000 years, playing a critical role in the development, growth…
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In Good Company
The North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame shares its mission, and more than a few of its honorees, with the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. Chester Reynolds had a dream. He was a Kansas City native who rose from sales manager to president of Lee Jeans. He had a creative mind and came up with the idea of Buddy Lee, a doll who “modeled” miniature samples of his company’s clothing line. But Chester’s greatest dream was to find a way to enshrine the cowboy and his era. He worried our great western heritage was being lost in the modern world. The idea for a national museum first came to…
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Just One More Ride
Across the prairies they are galloping as fast as old Sandy can go. The tall grass and trees are a blur, the wind is stinging the young cowboy’s face. There is no time to be timid; the outlaws are in close pursuit and he has got to get away. He knows he’s got a loyal friend with him. Sandy is sure footed and wily. All of a sudden Sandy lurches to a stop…and Mom is there saying its time to go. It seems so long ago now, the world of grocery store rides. Young cowboys and cowgirls begging for a quarter for just one more ride! The moms and dads…
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A Century Since the Great War; Family Ties
The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11 11th month. It’s been 100 years since the first Armistice ( Veterans ) Day. A century, such a long time, yet when I was born the “Great War” had only been over for a little less than 40 years and many veterans of this war were alive and strong. One of them, Alfred V. Taylor lied about his age and joined the Navy when the war started. He became a pharmacists mate, ( a pharmacists mate performed a variety of medical duties), and was assigned duty on an hospital ship spending the war near the coast of France. He was…
