Being as how Easter’s on it’s way, I’m reminded it’s time for all of us Central Texas Cowboys to switch from wearing felt hats to our new straw hats. It’s a tradition born of practicality as we face temperatures that will begin to soar into the three digits all too soon (Of course we just had the Easter norther, and the tomatoes appear to have survived temps in the mid 30’s).

Interesting that geography dictates the headgear worn by Cowboys as well. For instance in North Texas and the Panhandle many cowboys tend to wear felt hats all year, partly because it’s less humid there, and also because the wind blows straw hats off your head more readily.

Speaking of straw hat blowing in the wind, I remember an old friend whom I worked cattle with in New Mexico, named Frank Gallegos. He was a brand inspector for a long time, but in his youth he went to Nevada to work on a big outfit like the I L Ranch. He said the cow-boss was a transplanted Texan who never quite became enamored of Great Basin Traditions. One day in a fit of pique, the boss burst out,

“well, darn, if it weren’t for breaking them dang rawhide reatas, re-tying them lace-up boots, re-cinching them center-fire saddles, and chasing them danged straw hats, we could maybe get some work done around here!”

A friend once recounted the tale of his son at a horse show. This was in the eighties when his son was an early teenager. He had joined a local 4-H Club with his horse. Now, the horse was of quarter-type, however being raised in Mexico it probably had some crossing with Criollo or native Mexican ancestry. The reason the boy had the horse was that the family lived near the border and had friends who lived in Mexico who had given him the pony as a gift. The horse was trained by Charros, Mexican cowboys, who had trained it for practical ranch work before giving it to the boy, so that he would have a really nice, well-reined, well-behaved mount.

One weekend the club scheduled a horse show, so the boy entered with his horse. When he returned home he was disappointed at his results and he went to speak to his father, my friend. The father told his story of the horse show.

The boy entered the arena on his horse dressed in his working “leggins,” some pretty stained and worn chaps. His hat was a sweat stained felt Stetson. He wore the typical faded khaki, long sleeve shirt popular in that Southwest, desert country. The judge asked the competitors for a walk. The other youths, in their colored shirts, show chaps and silver mounted saddles, walked slowly with heads down and knee level. His horse boogied along at a ground gobbling running walk. He lapped The others – more than once. Then they were asked to trot. The boy stood up in his stirrups, like the vaqueros had taught him to do, and holding his reins forward, surged off into a long trot, once again lapping the others as they shuffled along in a near death jog.

Finally the judge asked for the lope, so the boy bumped his horse for that gate and sat down to enjoy a rocking chair canter, typical of the Mexican “cuaco.”

This time the other competitors passed him by. The signal to come into the center of the arena was given, so he cantered in, came to a sliding stop, and looped his right leg over the saddle horn, pulled out his snuff can, tapped the lid and took a dip while he awaited the results, confident that he alone had ridden a truly trained western horse. His father asked how he came out.

“Dad, they gave me the gate! I don’t understand! “

“Son,” my friend responded, “I don’t understand either. I guess a horse show ain’t the real world! “

Ever noticed how a colt sticks to its mama when anxious? The two even gallop stuck together sometimes. A horse’s’ natural tendency is to move into pressure, at least some of the time. This becomes a problem when we undertake to try to control a horse with a bit in its mouth. If we pull, to apply pressure, like is not he will lean into the pull, and it becomes a tug-of-war. It is for this very reason that our friend Baucher stressed the flexion of the jaw so much.  What he wanted to accomplish was a conditioned reflex of yielding to pressure. He built in a yielding of the jaw so that when the rider’s hand closed on the reins the horse would surrender to the pressure and soften its mouth. This reflex is the key to lightness.

Most of us initiate this reflex while dismounted. Using a snaffle or some such bit, standing next to the horse lift this novel upward into the corner of the horse’s mouth. Keep lifting until the horse opens its mouth, then you release the pressure, and the horse will lick and chew. Repeat this until you begin to get a near instant response with small pressure. Next, doing the “in the hand” work, walk along beside the horse, lifting the bit repeatedly, so that the horse yields the jaw with light pressure, and chews and swallows, as you walk along. Finally, mounted, ask for the jaw flexion with one rein whenever the horse resists, and ask for the chew. It will feel like a soft vibration, and will make a clinking sound, the music of the mouth. That music is the basis of lightness!