Out Our Way: Christ's cavvy

Out our way, Charlie and I only used two or three horses for working cattle. Charlie usually rode Jet, a solid bay who was solid and steady, and he often allowed me to ride “Freckles,” an Appaloosa  who was excitable and needed a firm hand. And of course, most of all I rode “Doc” — aka Goliath — 16 ½ hands and 1,200 pounds and unafraid of any bull.

It really didn’t matter all that much which horse we rode as the day’s work was short and usually involved nothing more than riding fence or pushing the herd a bit further down the trail. But in the old days — when cowboys we...