Wild Horse

I read an interesting story that happened on my place.  It occurred back about 1927.  That was not too long before the end of the free open range.  The author of a book I have was a young cowboy at the time.  They had been gathering wild horse out of the hills.  They shipped them to Portland by rail where they got paid $1.50 a head.  He said that one time they shipped out 32 car loads.

So they had about 1,400 head of horses gathered.  They came down out of the hills by way of Big Rock canyon (my place).  Two cowboys on the right and two on the left and 4 more in the rear.  He says they were strung out for a mile.  Some time previously the Oxman ditch had washed out.  Making a cut between the Oxman and Banks ditches 10 feet deep and 20 feet wide (again on my place).  After they came out of the canyon about 300 horses broke off and crossed the Oxman ditch.  They were running like hell between the ditches about 20 abreast.  When they got to that wash out they couldn't cross it.  The ones in front stopped short but the ones behind pushed them over the edge and then got pushed over in turn until the cut was dead level with horses.  The tail end ran across the top of the pile.  A few on the downhill side were able to roll out and escape but he said there were darn few of them.  The rest were dead within ten minutes.  He said it was a ghastly thing to witness.  They figured 125 horses died there.  They were just happy there wasn't a rider in front of them when they went over the top.