Some More Horse Tradin'

I
had been into deep South Texas with a string of tradin' horses and had sold out the last ones at Gonzales, Texas. I was ridin' a good, head-noddin', fox-trottin' light sorrel saddle horse with a flax mane and tail, about fifteen hands high, that wasn't good for a lot of things, but was a nice road horse that could drift you across the country with that natural swingin' fox trot, apparently with little effort on his part and little jar on the rider's part.

We had been several days coming back north when I rode into Waco and it was First Monday Trade's Day. The city of Waco is big, so I skirted around the edges and came in on the trade square not far from the Brazos River in the old part of town. It was early fall and there was lots of good horses and mules, milk cows, and other livestock on the square. There was already a little cotton money in circulation and traders and farmers alike were tryin' to have some business.

I had had a good trip and was carryin' plenty of tradin' money but wasn't too anxious to buy a bunch of common stock. I did think if there was something pretty nice in the way of saddle horses that would also do for light harness that I might buy a choice one or two. Since I was mounted on a good horse, I wasn't too anxious to swap off, so I was more of a buyer than a trader, and anytime a trader is usin' fresh money to buy fresh stock he is harder to please than when he's tryin' to swap off something. So I spent the morning ridin' around among the tradin' stock exercisin' my hard critical eye.

A little after noon a nicely dressed middle-aged gentleman drove in on the square a fine-lookin' matched pair of dark brown geldings hooked to a buckboard that had been hand made out of several different kinds of wood and had been finished with a clear lacquer that brought out the natural grain of the oak, bois d'arc, cedar, and maybe some other kinds of wood I didn't recognize in this beautiful rig. The harness wasn't fancy nor dressed up with a lot of bright buckles and other hardware, but when you slipped your hands over the reins and along the tugs you were quickly impressed that it was all nice English tanned soft leather.

I had never seen a pair of horses like these. They were almost sixteen hands tall with a great deal of bone and substance and probably weighed thirteen or fourteen hundred pounds apiece. They didn't carry any heavy hair around the back of their legs or fetlocks and there was no coarseness about their joints, yet at the same time they were heavy horses that had the appearance of some of the light-boned breeds.

I tied my saddle horse to a hitchrack and jingled my spurs across to where this team stood. Fresh stock on the trade square always draws some lookers and some bright conversation. I felt like I was a little out of my class on this team and this nicely finished natural-grained wood rig, so I stood around and listened a good while. This was a well-mannered pair of big horses and I got a glimpse in their mouths when somebody else was lookin'. Their teeth were long and well shaped and showed to be younger by the table of the tooth than they actually were. This meant two things. They had
good teeth to begin with and had been so well cared for and fed such good feed that their teeth had not been worn off what would be considered a normal amount for their years. Their legs were without blemish and they were deep-chested with a well-balanced topline. Their heads showed some refinement but still weren't small.

I studied this pair of horses and listened for about an hour and a half before I showed any interest in wanting to buy them. I finally asked this store-bought-lookin' gentleman that was drivin' the team what he would ask for them. He said that he would want to sell the team, the rig, and the harness and that he would take $500 and hand me the lines and I could figure the horses for whatever part of that $500 that I thought they were worth and the rig and the harness would be the difference.

I went back to my saddle horse and set in the shade of the tree by the hitchin' post and watched that beautiful team of drivin' horses. Their manners seemed to be the best and I noticed that there weren't any traders or any farmers could walk by them without givin' them the second look. I hadn't worried exactly about what use I had for this team and rig or about what I would do with them after I bought 'em, but that quality would knock a country boy's eyes out and I knew I could own 'em for a little while even if I had to sell 'em later on.

I was almost a stranger in a strange land and I didn't see anybody I knew to ask about the team. Late in the afternoon, I made a bid of $425 that seemed to insult this town-bred gentleman, but along towards sundown he hadn't had any better offers and I watched him work himself around through the horses and mules and visit a little bit as he got over close to where I had been loafin' with my horse. It seemed to me it would be a good time to break him down a little, so I got on my horse and started to ride off. Just as I expected, he hollered at me to wait a minute.

He told me I was lettin' $75 cheat me out of the best
driving team that had ever lived and the most beautiful buckboard. I said I wouldn't let $75 do that to me and he was quotin' it wrong—that he was lettin' $75 cheat him out of $425. Well, that kind of intellectual figurin' went on until he finally offered to take $450. I told him that I didn't believe I wanted to raise my bid, and it had begun to run through my mind that I hadn't seen these horses work except when he drove them in on the square and I said, “Before I would give $450 for them, I believe I would want to drive 'em.”

He said, “Well, let's go over and have another look.”

As he put in a little light conversation, he said, “I believe I'm just goin' to go ahead and trade with you and take the $425.”

Well, he didn't know it, but I was sweatin' worse than he was and was goin' to give the $25 extra so to cinch the deal right quick, so I counted out the money. I put a lariat rope around my saddle horse's neck and tied it where it wouldn't choke him. After I took his bridle off and tied it to the saddle horn, I stepped up into the rig and took a hold of my new drivin' team and let my saddle horse trot along on a loose rope since I hadn't tied it anywhere to the buckboard; I had it draped over the spring seat next to where I was.

As I left town, I went across the Brazos River and drove over to East Terrace, which was a few acres of land with a great big old-timey two-story brick house on it that belonged to Howard Mann. Howard was a fine old-time horseman whom time, and I guess progress, had overtaken. Most of this world's goods had slipped through his fingers, but he still had good judgment and expensive tastes. As I drove up to circle around in the front, Howard came off the porch, showin' a big burst of enthusiasm for an old man. I hadn't seen him for a year or so, and of course we shook hands. I got down on the ground and we had just started to visit when Howard looked at the rig and the team and said, “I'm glad you have gotten Dr. Bond's team of Heidelberg harness
horses. They're the finest driving horses that have ever been in Waco.” And as he laughed he said, “Probably the meanest, but that won't bother you any.”

I asked, “Why do you say they're the meanest, Howard?”

He said, “Oh Ben, they're not really mean, they're just bad to run away. You see those two front wheels that have been built out of bois d'arc and so beautifully lacquered. Well, they used to be oak like the two back wheels, but during runaways these horses ruined both wheels and Dr. Bond had Old Man Shultz build replacements out of bois d'arc, thinking maybe they would be harder to break up.”

And he said, “All these extra pieces of cedar you see in this bed is where they have replaced boards after different runaways. That buckboard originally had a stationary spring seat and it was broken off so many times that finally Old Man Shultz put a portable spring seat on that rig just like you would find on a wagon.”

As he told me all this, he kept tellin' me, “Ben, this won't bother you. You aren't afraid of a runaway team and you'll figure out a way to break them.” And as an afterthought he said, “I just imagine a few days' work to a loaded wagon might stop a lot of that.”