BACKTRAILS

March 2009
Blast to Oblivion
Tyler Hatch and Twins
Night Herding
Walt Masterson
December 2008
All Guns Blazing
Jim Bowden & Co.
Revolver Conversions
September 2008
Western Noir
Power of the Premise
West on Wheels
June 2008
Plot or Not Debate
Jack Giles
Whitney Revolver
March 2008
Walt Masterson
Plotters and Pantsers
More Horse Talk
December 2007
Peace at Any Price
Dan Claymaker
Horse Sense
September 2007
Artist Michael Thomas
Judging by Covers
The Schofield Revolver
June 2007
David Whitehead
Realistic Ballistics
Plot Twists
March 2007
Crime/western fiction
The Walker Colt
Sydney J. Bounds
December 2006
Lauran Paine
Jake Douglas & Co.
September 2006
Misfit Lil
Greg Mitchell
June 2006
Marshall Grover
Facts for Fiction
March 2006
Jeff Sadler
Mike Stotter
Writers and Money

OTHER WAGONS

Robert Hale Limited
Hale Authors' Blog
Black Horse Express
Adam Wright
Ben Bridges
Neil Hunter
Clay More
Piccadilly Cowboys
Jack Giles
Gillian F. Taylor
B. J. Holmes
C. S. Harris
Walt Masterson
Mystery File
Western Fi Review
Western Sensibility
The Tainted Archive
Jack Martin
World of Words
BH Western extract

"I also drive taxi cabs to make ends meet. And that can be a laugh … all walks of human life have staggered into the cab at one time or another. I once had an argument with literary writer Rachel Trezise over the merits of genre fiction while taking her home one night.  I pointed out that Oscar Wilde wrote genre fiction, Conan Doyle wrote genre fiction, even Shakespeare wrote genre fiction. I shouldn’t have really, but I remember stating, in my best working-class accent, that literary fiction was written by writers too lazy to follow structure. Whoops!

"Acting and writing are hardly the most lucrative professions – that is unless you are lucky enough to become the next Stephen King or Tom Hanks. But that doesn’t matter to me.

"I’ve always written and over the years have published stories on Radio 4 and Radio Wales, as well as having work in countless magazines. I also wrote the successful computer adventure game Operation Thunderbowel for Sacred Scroll Software for the ZX Spectrum many years ago. In fact that game is now available from World of Spectrum.org as a free download.

"But it wasn’t until I turned 40 that I managed to sell my first novel. I’d written several others and did come close a few years ago with a comic thriller, Smith’s Way, but The Tarnished Star is the real deal. A full-fledged novel, professionally published by a respected publisher. And Hale have purchased a second western from me, Arkansas Smith, which should see light of day early in 2010."

So what does Gary feel his Jack Martin persona can offer western readers?

"Thrills, spills and enjoyment – hopefully. It’s very much in the classic western mould with the lone lawman up against massive odds. It’s a story of courage and good and bad are very clearly defined. Though I suppose there are some shades of grey in the Cole Masters character and I hope that all the characters ring true. I’ve tried to give them very clear motivations and make even the smallest of them three-dimensional.

"Currently, I’m working on yet another Wild West Monday and  the Tainted Archive can be very time-consuming but rewarding all the same. I think of it as an online magazine rather than a blog and I’ve picked up a fair amount of regular readers. Some of these may buy my book so I think of the Archive as an extension of my professional writing."

So hopefully the future will be bright for both Jack Martin and Gary Dobbs.

"Well, the future’s unwritten but I’ve always been optimistic. I’m 40 years young at the moment, still a kid in the grand scheme of things, and who knows? Maybe tomorrow I’ll attend the audition that changes my life, or pen the prose that makes my name. It doesn’t matter one way or the other because I enjoy what I do; in many ways I need to do it.  I’m attempting a historical crime novel that I’ve been planning for a couple of years.  It’s set in 1904 South Wales and contains a Wild West style shootout involving Buffalo Bill that takes place in Pontypridd. And then there's the remotest of possibilities that I could be the next James Bond!

"I guess I’ll always be out there chasing rainbows. One of these days I’ll catch one."

Keith Hetherington turned to writing westerns full-time in 1957. Today, packages of author copies arrive monthly at his Queensland home as souvenirs of his labours under four names. The latest, Bad Day in Babylon, was published in May. "Those books . . . I never know what to do with them!" Keith says. "Yes, I've hundreds, in cartons and trunks and ports up in the shed, on the back porch and, until recently, taking up floor and wall space in my office. I give a few away to my brother-in-law (mostly large-print as he doesn't see too well), to the odd friend who shows some interest, to a bloke I've known for years who for some reason has an interest in Mexicans and who -- whenever I see him; he's a volunteer library worker now -- asks if I'm 'still killing 'em off!' If I have a story with Mexicans in it, I usually give him a copy. There's a book exchange guy I've known some twenty years, but a bit of a rogue. I know I could sell copies to him for a couple of bucks, but that seems like betrayal in a way. Probably not, but I've never taken him up on the offers that come from time to time.... Mate, summing-up, the freebies are a damn problem! I keep a couple of copies, of course, but still run out of room. Even after a massive, recent re-organization, my shelves are crowded with BHWs!"
 

 

Chap O'Keefe voiced fears in our last edition that his new BHW, Blast to Oblivion, partly inspired by classic detective novel The Valley of Fear, might not please the huge, world-wide Sherlock Holmes community. They proved groundless. The book quickly went out of stock at the publishers, and the Sherlockians were delighted. In its newsletter, the aptly named District Messenger, the Sherlock Holmes Society of London said, "Mr O’Keefe has reworked the plot of a Sherlock Holmes story as an exploit of his ex-Pinkerton protagonist Joshua Dillard. The result is clever, atmospheric and exciting." Peter E. Blau, a trustee and secretary of the society's famed New York counterpart, the Baker Street Irregulars, similarly circulated his members with the advice that Chap's book "opens with an epigraph from The Valley of Fear, and with good reason: the book is a western, with plenty of colour and atmosphere and violence, and a mystery that will not be a surprise to those who have read and remember Conan Doyle's story." Blast to Oblivion was also favourably reviewed or mentioned at the blogs Mystery File, the Tainted Archive, and of crime fiction author Rafe McGregor. Fellow BHW author David Whitehead wrote, "I'm a big Sherlock Holmes fan, and have long admired The Valley of Fear, so of course I eagerly await the opportunity to read Blast to Oblivion (neat title, by the way). The BH Extra article really whetted my appetite. Now I see that the game truly is afoot!"

Clint Eastwood, one-time spaghetti western star -- and "artist's model" for countless BHW covers! -- was interviewed in the 20th Anniversary  edition of Empire magazine. Eastwood told how he met director Sergio Leone in the early sixties, when Sergio was prepping a script called Il Magnifico Straniero (The Magnificent Stranger) based on a Japanese classic, Yojimbo. "Sergio had only done one movie, but everybody said he was well thought of in Rome as a guy with a great sense of humour. I said, 'I can tell he has a great sense of humour by his writing.' And I thought it was a good opportunity, too. I was doing a TV series, Rawhide, for quite a few seasons, so I was kinda bored with it. I didn't necessarily want to do a western . . . but it seemed like a nice thing. Especially because Yojimbo, when I first saw it back in the fifties, I thought of as a great western screenplay. I thought nobody would have the nerve to do it that way. But, fortunately, Sergio did." Leone settled for the 34-year-old Eastwood for the title role: "because I was cheap." After production wrapped, The Magnificent Stranger disappeared. "Then I started reading in Variety about this picture that was causing quite a stir in Rome and Naples. It was called Per un Pugno di Dollari (For a Fistful of Dollars) and it didn't seem at all familiar. I just kept reading about how well this picture was doing. And finally, I guess after a couple of weeks of reading about this film, I noticed they said, 'A Fistful of Dollars, starring Clint Eastwood...' I thought, 'Oh my God, it's that picture!' It didn't even have Sergio Leone's name on it, because he'd changed his credit to Bob Robertson, to have an English or American-sounding name. So I didn't get the association until they called me up and asked me to do a second picture."

Two main characters quoting poetry to each other? Is this a first in a BHW? What have Walt Whitman and Christina Rossetti got to do with anything, especially the Civil War? These are only a few of the questions raised by Nik aka Ross Morton in The $300 Man, published in May. From his home in Spain, Nik tells Hoofprints, "I had thought of using Emily Dickinson but her work was published after the events described in the narrative." The story's central character is one-handed, half-Mexican Corbin Molina who always carries $300 -- what he was paid as a substitute soldier for the Union. "His past emerges to confront him during a tense showdown that threatens not only him but a new-found love." Meanwhile, another writer tells us he has incorporated a quotation from the Bible in every one of the many BHWs he has  written -- and no one has commented!

Tributes to the late Christopher Kenworthy, aka Walt Masterson, author of nine fine BHWs, continued to arrive at the BH Extra office. Nik Morton wrote, "I, too, was saddened by the death of Walt Masterson; I’d only finished his Showdown at Painted Rock a few days before learning about Chris’s demise. I thought that you gave a moving eulogy to him in your last edition." David Whitehead wrote, "The tribute to Chris Kenworthy was extremely moving, at least to sentimental old me." Meanwhile, reader Dominic Fox, reviewing the last Walt Masterson book, Left-Hand Gun, at his recently launched blog, said, "I have always liked this writer's style. It's like listening to him telling the tale that is so vivid that it can be seen like a movie. Looking at his website I see that he had some great contacts with writers like C. S. Forester and had dinner bought for him by Louis L'Amour."

 

New BHW arrival Joanne Walpole, author of the May title Long Shadows under the pen-name Terry James, says, "For me, the two most important factors in any novel are character and story, with each element driving the other. With that in mind, I try to make my characters as believable as possible by throwing them into extreme situations that will test their resolve and reveal their true colours – good or bad – through their actions and reactions. Hopefully, this makes for a story that keeps the reader eager to turn the next page and culminates a satisfying conclusion." In Long Shadows,  the characters include: Jake Rudd, a hero saved from a brutal beating; Ros West, the attractive redhead who saves him but, although an old flame, can't remember him and has no reason to trust him; family and friends threatened by a power-hungry businessman. The blurb asks, "When the smoke clears, will old scores be settled or will the truth prove more dangerous than a smoking gun?"  Joanne has a blog, where she also publishes her short fiction, and is a keen member of  an exclusive Yahoo! group open to readers and some writers for the BHW line. Asked for a photograph, Joanne told Hoofprints, "I'm a bit shy."

Ever thought how convenient it might be to go online and find a complete Black Horse Western ready to read, free? Livewire Gary Dobbs (aka Jack Martin) decided to do something about it. In late February, he heard that rights in a 1994 BHW, The Sheriff and the Widow, had reverted to the author after it had sold out its library print-run and the publisher had been unable to commit to a reprint. Amazon sellers were today offering used copies of the rare book for prices in the region of £90! Gary -- self-described "Welsh arm of the Chap O'Keefe fan club" -- said why not serialize the book at his blog in four parts on consecutive Mondays in March? Author Chap replied, "Go for it! I think it's a tremendous idea and surely another first -- a blogger running a fiction serial! I reckon it will be well received by your friends and fellow bloggers. For example, I think James Reasoner and his Rough Edges readers will go for the Gold Medal-ish Sheriff and the Widow big-time. Originally it had a tagline the library publisher didn't, of course, use: Gunplay and seduction . . . the makings of a lawman's acid test!" James said, "Great news ... I just put up a post about it ... If reprinting Keith's book goes over well (and I can't see how it wouldn't!), maybe you can do some more classic BHWs in the future. Oh, and I entered your Misfit Lil contest, too." Gary's pageloads soared. When the serial finished, one reader with withdrawal symptoms commented that Mondays wouldn't be the same. Those who missed the free read can still catch up on all four parts at their own pace. It's at the Tainted Archive. Follow the links in the right-hand column.

BHW writers live around the world: the UK (England, Scotland and Wales), the US (from Maine to California), Spain, Australia, New Zealand. Sometimes you hear of them globetrotting, too. The crime writer who writes BHWs as Eugene Clifton and lives near Peterborough, England, recently flew to the South Island of New Zealand. "I made the most of the opportunity to look up a cousin who lives in Nelson, giving him a copy of my latest BHW, Long Road to Revenge, for which he expressed his gratitude. (Sorry, Ken, if you'd have preferred something  from the duty-free shop!)  A couple of days later  when I stopped at an internet café to pick up  my emails, I found he'd been making enquiries about my previous works, and discovered that three of my early titles were available at the local library. BHWs certainly travel!"

Hoofprints located California author Paul J. Lederer (aka Logan Winters and Owen G. Irons) by using conventional mail after being told "he doesn't have email". Paul responded, by email, "Sorry you had to go to the extreme of actually going postal to find me. I didn't know anyone but me still knew how to lick a stamp. I recently changed computers and servers at once. . . . No matter! It's interesting that someone would think the Black Horse Western books I now have out might be reprints. I read something like that on the web the other night as I was -- being between projects -- just sitting around having a beer. Made me feel more than old! I checked my pulse, then decided I was still alive and kicking. As far as contributing to your website, I'd be happy to, but that will take some thought. . . . My life has been a little strange, they tell me. Anyway, I will remain in touch and do my best to feed you some information. However! Tell everyone I'm still kicking and the books are not reprints." Paul is another BHW writer with a long-earned reputation and literally hundreds of books behind him. Western fans have fond memories from the 1980s of his novel Tecumseh and the seven-book Indian Heritage series, beginning with Manitou's Daughters, which Publishers Weekly called "strong" and "winning". The Logan Winters pen-name was first used on the distinctive, four-book Spectros occult western series. A good magician and his companions chase an evil sorcerer across the Old West. Monsters and gunplay! Owen G. Irons books -- very traditional -- have appeared from the mid-1970s.

BHW authors Jack Martin (Gary Dobbs), Jack Giles (Ray Foster) and Ross (Nik) Morton have contributed short stories in several genres to David Cranmer's new, must-read Beat to a Pulp website. And the ubiquitous Chap O'Keefe came up with a multi-crossover offering. Announcing it, editor Elaine Ash said: "The Unreal Jesse James is set to blow writers and readers away with its genre-busting mix of western, sci-fi, historical-romance and humour. It takes great skill to toss so many elements into one story and make anything more than a mess – but Chap O’Keefe does it with style and wit. David and I are thrilled to debut The Unreal Jesse James on BTAP. . . I’ve begged Chap to consider writing a novel based on the story but he explains that he’s very busy writing his series novels for Black Horse Westerns." Later, Elaine added, "It will likely be my favourite story of the year." The yarn tells how its strange, time- and space-travelling Jesse James is foiled by a sassy American frontier lady called Verity: "You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Mister James!"

Comings and goings picked up apace at Clerkenwell House, London home of Robert Hale Publishing and BHWs. Helen Ogden, who became publicity and marketing assistant last September, told us in February, "I have been given the opportunity to teach in an orphanage in southern India for four months, something I have always wanted to do and I think I would always regret turning down. Although it has been brief, I have really enjoyed my time at Hale and working with so many kind and helpful authors, so thank you. My replacement, Nikki Edwards, is very nice and I am sure will do a great job." From California, BHW contributor Steve Hayes, one-time Hollywood actor and a writer since 1957, said of Helen's swift departure, "Fulfilling her lifelong dream, she wrote me -- teaching orphans in New Delhi. Makes me feel like a pretty worthless human being." We also learned that long-serving Shirley Day, of the production department, was retiring. Looking back to the early '90s, another BHW writer said, "Many names have come and gone since then, especially in the publicity area, but Shirley Day retiring does seem to mark the end of an era, though I can remember when production was  in charge of director Eric Restall." It was understood that Gemma Williams was taking over Shirley's duties. We also heard that Julia Hardy, who worked on Hale covers, had also left and Catherine Williams was her replacement. In early April, Nick Chaytor took over as subsidiary rights manager from Elizabeth Robson, who had held the  role since October 2006 when she replaced Florence Pinard.

A BHW panel discusses series characters

BHE: Ben, your first western, The Silver Trail (1986) featured Carter O'Brien, who also became a series character and last appeared in Draw Down the Lightning (2007), his fourteenth adventure. Does  your experience tally with Jake's?

 

When written properly, series fiction offers tremendous possibilities for character development. An example which springs immediately to mind is David Thompson's Wilderness series, which begins with the central character as a nineteen year-old greenhorn. Through a series of events he is taken from the civilized surroundings of New York and thrust into the untamed wilderness of the Rocky Mountains, circa 1840. As the series progresses, the reader is able to follow the hero as he meets the woman who goes on to become his wife, as she gives birth to his son, then his daughter, as the children grow to adulthood and then themselves get married. Of course, every step of the way the characters gets into one scrape or another -- and with such a large cast of characters the possibilities are almost endless. But the main thing is that the changes are constantly being rung. Series like Longarm, The Gunsmith, Slocum and others allow for very little but more of the same.
 
BHE: And what about you, Chap?

Chap: I came into the business of western writing already well-versed in series fiction. My earliest working experience, as a junior editorial assistant, was on the venerable Sexton Blake detective series in London, one of the longest running series of all time to which more than two hundred authors contributed over the years. Later, I wrote a quantity of scripts for comic books. The characters featured were often the properties of the various publishers or other authors. They included all sorts: the Saint, Blackbow the Cheyenne, Dr Graves, Rubberman, Kelpie the Boy Wizard, Jeff Curtiss, the Iron Man, the Legend Testers . . . these come to mind.

My first BHW, Gunsmoke Night, was a standalone, but my second, Shootout at Hellyer's Creek, introduced ex-Pinkerton detective Joshua Dillard, who is still going strong. Misfit Lil didn't turn up till 2006, but certainly took off quickly with the readers. I am currently enjoying writing her seventh story, but having to second-guess what will be acceptable to the publisher's cautious editors is inhibiting. A satisfied reader from Ormskirk said at the GGG forum of the last book out, Misfit Lil Cleans Up, "I was actually surprised by the level of, er, friskiness. Sounds like the good times may have stopped rolling. To be honest, the marketing strategy of the hardbacks-for-libraries-only publishers is a bit beyond me."

Steve M, at Western Fiction review, said, "Misfit Lil makes for an engaging lead character. O’Keefe also includes brief mention of her past adventures that makes me want to find those books and discover just how she and the other characters, already known to her, came to like or dislike each other. It is also unusual to find the main character in a Black Horse Western being female and, for me, this made a pleasant change."

I'd like to pick up on a point Ben makes, if I may.

BHE: Of course, Chap.

Chap: I don't think a series has to show change in the character of its central figure to be properly written. Sexton Blake, whom I've mentioned, developed much over the seventy years his stories regularly appeared. But the evolution in his saga had more to do with reaction to changing times, the successive writers' updated narrative styles, and the kind of books an audience would be prepared to buy and support in later decades. The character's bedrock values and background were surprisingly constant.

I think if I were to write about Misfit Lil growing older, marrying perhaps, having children, changing with her maturity, I wouldn't really have a series character but linked episodes in an ongoing, single story. I might also lose the readers who like the idea of a lively young woman testing the boundaries and defying the conventions of the Victorian-age West. That's part of the books' appeal for me, too, and it isn't flagging yet. I always have some other major characters in every book who are changed by the story's events, but their participation begins and ends in their one entry in the series.

BHE: Over to you, Ben! Is familiarity, as described by Chap, part of the series package?

Ben: We shouldn't forget this "familiarity" is precisely what some readers want. It's like going into the candy store and buying your favourite box of chocolates, because you know when you open it you're going to get everything you expect and no nasty surprises.

 

But this can also be a double-edged sword, and familiarity can all too quickly breed contempt. I have tremendous respect for Ben Haas. He was, I think, a near-brilliant writer of popular western fiction. But as good as his Fargo and Sundance westerns are, he always insisted on adding almost word-for-word descriptions of Fargo's or Sundance's respective arsenals to every book. Even a die-hard admirer like myself finds this tiresome after the first ten or twelve times.

BHE: Ed Gorman, who writes mysteries as well as westerns, has said, "The problem with mystery series, at least for me, is that too many of them go on past their prime. Part of this is because readers don't seem to notice the fall-off that begins with adventure number thirty-one and continues all the way through adventure number seventy-eight. The writer is on auto pilot and so is the reader. The whole thing becomes a ritual, like mass." I take it you'd agree, Ben? 

 

Ben: By its very nature, there has to be familiarity in series fiction. But to truly succeed there also has to be change and evolution, something more that keeps your reader coming back for more. I've recently been editing an English-language version of a Morgan Kane western called $10,000 For Jesse Rawlins.

Kane was a lawman created by Louis Masterson, aka Kjell Hallbing, and he was and remains a staggeringly popular character in his native Norway. Why? Because the author went to great lengths to give him a complete history, and ensured that his experiences, as the series progressed, constantly shaped and changed him. As a reader, I find this particularly attractive -- that you can really follow Kane’s complex life.

BHE: Your view does tie in better with the many authors who have had an ambivalent approach, Ben. For instance, respected pulps writer Les Savage Jr, like Chap, had a female series character, Señorita Scorpion, but you couldn't say he was her biggest fan. Literary agent Jon Tuska has reported Savage wasn't as fond of the stories as was Malcolm Reiss at Fiction House. So his writing of them inclined to be sporadic. In the 1950s, Savage expanded several of his short novels for magazines into book-length novels, but he never went back to do so with any of the Señorita Scorpion yarns, nor did he try to bring them together into collections. Jake -- as a western writer whose long and impressive career began in those days -- how do you feel about the familiarity aspect in series books?

Jake: I enjoy seeing my character develop as the series progresses. He begins to feel his age, old wounds slow him down, perhaps make him more cautious -- and that could be fatal. . . . But he must develop with passing years, otherwise you have Peter Pan with a tied-down holster and not a spot of acne or a hint of stubble in sight.

Chap: Oh dear! Looks like I'm out on my own here. Joshua Dillard is a troubleshooting gun-for-hire. The notion of a slowed-down Joshua doesn't appeal any more than an age-sobered Misfit Lil. Maybe I'll have to take the Conan Doyle trail and try killing off Joshua instead! After all, he has already taken one leaf out of Sherlock Holmes' book for Blast to Oblivion. But at the moment he has an eighth  adventure -- Faith and a Fast Gun -- out next year, and a ninth is simmering quietly in my imagination.

BHE: Perhaps Jake could tell us more about some of the series characters he has written about.
 

Jake: For the Australian Cleveland Publishing Co. I wrote the Clay Nash series, about a Wells Fargo detective working mostly undercover -- plenty of scope for different adventures and locales. Also while working for Cleveland, [publisher] Les Atkins, top writer Anthony Scott-Veitch and I worked on The Enforcer series, which starred Yancey Bannerman, troubleshooter for the Governor of Texas. We thought about giving him an older sidekick to help keep his youthful enthusiasm in control, but Tony Veitch said why not turn it around? Make the older sidekick the hellraiser, and Yancey, besides running down the Governor's enemies, has the added responsibility of keeping sidekick Johnny Cato in line. It worked and the series ran for many issues over a few years. It was immensely popular in Germany where they called it "Johnny Colt".

The thing is with a series hero, you must make sure the attributes you give him are there in place every time. Don't give him a Smith & Wesson after a couple of stories using a Colt -- at least, not without some explanation. I worked in television during the '70's for Crawford Productions, writing dozens of episodes for Homicide, Matlock Police, Division 4, Young Ramsay, Solo One, Cop Shop and even a couple for a soapie, The Box. The characters for these shows were well-established and you could not deviate from the person the viewers had grown used to. If you did, even in a minor way, Crawfords were inundated with protests the very day after the episode had gone to air.

BHE: That would have kept a writer on his toes!

Jake: It's a kind of compliment in a way. You've made a memorable character -- at least to some people -- and they want to make sure you keep him in the mould.
 

Hornblower is a prime example of a well-developed character, ranging from a seasick midshipman to a cranky old Lord-Admiral, and still with his protesting tummy after all those years! To make it more notable, the books were not written chronologically. The first, The Happy Return, was actually book five in the series. Mr Midshipman Hornblower, where it all began, did not appear till years later. A very disciplined writer, C. S. Forester....

BHE: Other advice for beginning writers, anyone?

Joe Kelly bought a half share in Travis Neal's ranch in an area reputed to be Comanche territory. While searching for his missing partner, Kelly encountered a Comanche war party, three former Confederate soldiers fleeing a killing in Mexico, the Mayne family and a renegade gang. The arrival of a self-promoting US marshal added to his problems.
  Kelly and the Maynes had to face hostile Indians, white murderers and a fanatical lawman before they could claim their respective ranches. Then, when the troubles appeared to be behind them, another problem arose.
  Suddenly the danger was that friends would fall out. More lead would fly before the situation was resolved!
"COWBOYS know about cattle but they don't understand horses," said a prolific writer of westerns in 1990.

Is this really true? Twice, in different books, I have read this announcement by a writer considered by some to have been an expert on cowboy life. I would dispute his claim. To my way of thinking, it only advertised the fact that the writer concerned had few clues about the cowboy life that he professed to know so well.

It could be the case today because ranches are smaller, cattle are quieter and many cowboys have become jeep jockeys. But in the Old West, a high degree of proficiency with horses was considered essential.

The horse was the cowboy's tool of trade and the better he understood it, the easier his work was and the greater was his efficiency. People whose lives and livelihoods depend upon their horsemanship get to understand their horses pretty well. The high-priced, "horse-whispering" gurus who have come out of the woodwork in recent years, were few and far between in the Old West and those who were about mostly plied their trade in the cities. Cowboys had to train their own horses and they trained them on the job. Cattle ranches were busy places and ranch hands did not have the luxury of spending hours in a corral working on a single horse.

"A cowboy calculates that it takes four to six years before he has produced the crack horse he wants" -- European writer, 1995.

This statement presupposes that a cowboy stayed at the one place and rode the same horse for the required number of years. Cowboys were nomadic by nature and their work was seasonal. On big ranches they would ride many different horses in that period. The "cowboy" quoted above is training show horses, not working ranch mounts.

Horses were given a smattering of an education at the hands of professional bronc busters, but their real training was done in working situations by the cowboys. The bronc buster's job was just to get them to the stage where a good horseman could ride them and work around them without too many dramatic incidents. Modern writers have a wrong concept and one well-known equestrian author stated that bronc busters were "not much esteemed" because they were paid only $3 per horse while ranch hands were getting $30 per month. He was thinking in terms of European horse-breaking where the job is long and costly and can take several weeks or even months for a single horse.

It is wrong to compare European situations with the Old West. By having several horses at different stages of training, a professional bronc buster could easily turn out six horses in a week. The horse was considered broken when it could be handed over to a good rider, but its training had barely started. Many bronc busters were rough to the point of being brutal and rushed the horses to start as many as they could as quickly as possible. Some of the horses they turned out would buck on and off for the rest of their lives but a good cowboy could still get work out of them.

Not all horse breakers were brutal and some could get quick results by more gentle means. The brutal ones usually did not stay long in the breaking game if they had another job to go to. Luck usually runs out for those who have too many violent confrontations with animals as powerful as horses. Cruel breakers are either young and ignorant or are starting to lose their nerve. It is indisputable that many rough breakers existed in the Old West but you can bet your boots that there were also skilled operators who turned out good horses by being as gentle as they could. Unbroken horses that have been running wild for years are frightened and dangerous. They play rough, and even the gentlest of breakers has to take strong measures at times. There were good and bad bronc busters as there are good and bad in every trade.

The Frederic Remington drawing of the two bronc busters saddling a young horse is a classic portrayal of the old, rough breakers at work.

The rope around the neck with a half hitch around the nose is a very severe way to hold a horse. No effort has been made to win the animal's trust and the use of painful restraints is really counter-productive. The man pulling up the latigo is wisely keeping out of range of a cow kick

The cowboy who did not understand young horses would quickly ruin them. It was the rider who first put the horse into real training who had the most important effect on its future. Sometimes a good cowhand could undo the work of a bad breaker.

The rider on a bucking horse was a good subject for painters like Remington and Russell, but they were not always breaking in horses, as many observers think. Most range-raised horses would buck when they were fresh.

Remington’s painting of the rider on the chestnut horse could well be a cowboy dishing out a bit of retribution to a horse that had got into the habit of throwing riders. It is stupid and counter-productive to flog a young horse that could be bucking out of fear, but sometimes punishment will change the attitudes of rogues who think they can throw people.

Such strong measures don’t always work. Sometimes the horse will buck harder. It gets backs to the rider’s understanding of the individual animal and the reason for its misbehaviour.

In this painting, the clue is the bridle on the horse. Young horses were often started in hackamores which work on the nose. The presence of a bit indicates that the horse might have had a reasonable degree of experience and could be a broken-in rogue. These are usually worse than unbroken horses.

Training

Once the young horse had been allocated to a rider, its training began in earnest. Most riding breeds take naturally to cattle work. It is not the sole domain of the quarter horse but there is much to learn.

The horse has to accept a rope being swished about it. It learns to run down cattle and to drive them. It must have the confidence to negotiate rough country at speed with a man on its back and starts to develop teamwork with its rider. The very best will develop into cutting horses, skilled at separating individual cattle from the herd.

Horses have a certain amount of natural herding skills but it takes a good rider to develop these. If the rider does not know how to train the horse, its “cow sense” never grows. Today, professionals train cutting and roping horses but once it was just another cowboy skill

I have seen it written that no great skill was required to ride along quietly with a herd of cattle, therefore the cowboy did not have to be much of a rider. Unfortunately, the author did not realize the amount of fast and dangerous work involved in putting a herd of wild cattle together.

Where the cattle went, the riders had to pursue, get around them and turn them in the correct direction. These days fencing, small pastures and regular handling have made cattle quiet, but on the big, unfenced ranches of the Old West, they were virtually wild animals that fled at the sight of a man. And they did not head into places where it was easy to follow them. To be successful, men and horses needed to work together and mutual trust was vital.

In my book, The Raiders (to be published September 30) I have described what it is like to ride in thick brush. In this case the hero, Hewitt, is chasing another rider, Bramley, but the same situation would apply if he was after cattle:

When the lawman reached the trees he could hear small branches breaking as the rider smashed his way through densely growing timber. In such terrain hitting trees was inevitable but a good horse in the brush chose the easiest path and did not duck under low branches that could sweep the rider from its back. A rider with confidence in his mount did only minimal steering leaving the selection of their path to the horse with its faster reflexes.

Bramley had never been much of a rider in the brush and avoided it wherever possible. Consequently, his horses were not familiar with the task that now confronted the grey. The horse and rider had different opinions about the safest route. The horse might select one side of a tree but Bramley, at the last moment, would decide that the other side looked better. The grey would try to answer the reins but sometimes had little room to move. More than once it bumped a tree and sometimes the rider’s knee or foot collided painfully with a tree trunk. Where it had a chance to avoid a collision, the horse momentarily stopped and lost ground on its pursuer every time it did so.

Riding and training were not the old cowboys’ only skills. Many could shoe their own horses and treat injuries and illnesses. Despite frequent mentions of “horse doctors” in western fiction, the veterinary profession was really just developing in the 19th century and again the money was to be made in the cities. Very few vets headed west. Most ranch men did their own vet work.

I cannot vouch for the modern cowboy, because situations have changed, but modern critics of the old cowboys are living in a very different world. Those who claim that the cattlemen of the Old West did not understand horses are kidding themselves. Certain things could have been done better but in most cases the old cowboys had more horse experience and knew more about them than their modern critics.

The old-timer might not have known how to braid a mane or apply cosmetics to a show horse or work a horse solely to gallop safely in a sand arena. His clothes, his hat, the style of his chaps and probably the colour of his saddle would outrage the western clothing industry, but you could put him on a horse just about anywhere in the world and he could get work out of it. The same cannot be said of many of those who “really understand” horses today.

NEW BLACK HORSE WESTERN NOVELS

Published by Robert Hale Ltd, London
                                                                                             978

Time to Kill	Lee Lejeune	0 7090 8739 7
Long Shadows	Terry James	0 7090 8740 3
Land of the Lost	Dean Edwards	0 7090 8742 7
The $300 Man	Ross Morton	0 7090 8750 2
Return of the Gunfighter	Ethan Flagg	0 7090 8751 9
Bad Day in Babylon	Clayton Nash	0 7090 8757 1
The .45 Goodbye	Dempsey Clay	0 7090 8681 9
Lanigan and the She-Wolf	Ronald Martin Wade	0 7090 8709 0
The Outpost	Owen G. Irons	0 7090 8715 1
Showdown at Bonawa	Alan Irwin	0 7090 8747 2
Death Range	Elliot Long	0 7090 8758 8
The Tarnished Star	Jack Martin	0 7090 8761 8
Portrait of an Outlaw	J. D. Kincaid	0 7090 8760 1
The Death Shadow Riders	Elliot Conway	0 7090 8765 6
Rio Bonito	Caleb Rand	0 7090 8767 0
Riders of the Barren Plains	I. J. Parnham	0 7090 8768 7
Ready for Trouble	Corba Sunman	0 7090 8769 4
Gunman's Walk	Clint Ryker	0 7090 8770 0
The Short Creek Rustlers	J. D. Ryder	0 7090 8771 7