Mustang: A Horse of the West

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Thomas C. Hinkle. Mustang: A Horse of the West

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IT was a fine spring day in the cattle country of the Old West. Big Bay, the mother of Mustang, a two-month-old colt, walked along a trail that led up a steep slope toward a line of rocky cliffs beyond. Three old worn-out range horses walked behind Big Bay and Mustang.

Big Bay had raised a number of colts. She was the kind of mother that watched for enemies and she was an unusual old mare in that she would fight for her colt. She would fight a wolf or a mountain lion, and once she had kicked a grizzly bear so quickly and so hard on his jaw that the grizzly was knocked back and Big Bay got away with her foal. That had been two years ago. She had a new colt now—this small prancing one that seemed to be so full of life he couldn’t stand still.

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“Yes, and likely she thought while she stomped him, ‘I suppose I ought to leave enough of you for the buzzards to pick on account they’ll be hungry. Well, I’ll mix ’em up a good mess of hash for once. I’ll pound you up like a tough beefsteak. The buzzards is nice and I’ll fix ’em a right nice meal.’ ”

As they talked they thought of how much she and Mustang meant to Sam. A month before the chief owner of the ranch had sold a herd of horses to be shipped into Kansas and Sam had bought Big Bay and Mustang, paying a higher price for them than for horses in general. But Jim and Charley and Bud knew. As they put it, “Sam was plumb set on these two from the first.”

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