y seat but workbench for the cowman.
A light saddle would be torn to pieces at the first rush of a maddened
steer, but the sturdy frame of a cow-saddle would throw the heaviest
bull on the range. The high cantle would give a firmness to the cowboy's
seat when he snubbed a steer with a sternness sufficient to send it
rolling heels over head. The high pommel, or "horn," steel-forged and
covered with cross braids of leather, served as anchor post for this
same steer, a turn of the rope about it accomplishing that purpose at
once. The saddle-tree forked low down over the pony's back so that the
saddle sat firmly and could not readily be pulled off. The great broad
cinches bound the saddle fast till horse and saddle were practically one
fabric. The strong wooden house of the old heavy stirrup protected
the foot from being crushed by the impact of the herd. The form of the
cow-saddle has changed but little, although today one sees a shorter
seat and smaller horn, a "swell front" or roll, and a stirrup of open
"ox-bow" pattern.

The round-up was the harvest of the range. The time of the calf round-up
was in the spring after the grass had become good and after the calves
had grown large enough for the branding. The State Cattle Association
divided the entire State range into a number of round-up districts.
Under an elected round-up captain were all the bosses in charge of the
different ranch outfits sent by men having cattle in the round-up. Let
us briefly draw a picture of this scene as it was.

Each cowboy would have eight or ten horses for his own use, for he had
now before him the hardest riding of the year. When the cow-puncher went
into the herd to cut out calves he mounted a fresh horse, and every few
hours he again changed horses, for there was no horse which could long
endure the fatigue of the rapid and intense work of cutting. Before the
rider stretched a sea of interwoven horns, waving and whirling as the
densely packed ranks of cattle closed in or swayed apart. It was
no prospect for a weakling, but into it went the cow-puncher on his
determined little horse, heeding not the plunging, crushing, and
thrusting of the excited cattle. Down under the bulks of the herd, half
hid in the whirl of dust, he would spy a little curly calf running,
dodging, and twisting, always at the heels of its mother; and he would
dart in after, following the two through the thick of surging and
plunging beasts. The sharp-eyed pony would s