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<\/a>Popular belief holds the bronc is the legendary Steamboat. Although there always has to be someone who disagrees and in this case that someone is the University of Wyoming.\u00a0 Their source claims the bucking horse and rider (BH&R) are \u201cStub\u201d Farlow on a horse named Deadman. However, the University claims the bucking horse and rider used as the University\u2019s logo is Steamboat with crack buster Guy Holt holding on.<\/p>\nBut we\u2019re not going to listen to the University. We\u2019re going to go with everyone else in Wyoming because we like them better.\u00a0 So, let\u2019s start with the bronc, Ol\u2019 Steamboat.<\/p>\n
The year Steamboat foaled is also disputed. I\u2019ve found anywhere from 1894 to 1901. We can discount 1901 since Steamboat\u00a0 \u201cfirst attracted public attention at the Festival of Mountains and Plains in Denver in 1900.\u201d (Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame).\u00a0 But he was foaled on the Foss Ranch in Wyoming.\u00a0 While gentle when led by Frank Foss\u2019s young son, no ranch hand could hold him long enough to get a saddle on his back. Foss realized the black colt was never going to be a cow pony and sold him to the Two Bar Ranch in Bosler, Wyoming.<\/p>\n
Busters at the Two Bar were the only ones busted by the wild horse. The top buster, enraged at being bested by the big black hit the horse across the nose with the butt of his quirt. The blow damaged the horse\u2019s nasal cavity and ever after the horse whistled like a steamboat whenever he got riled up and started bucking.\u00a0 From Texas to Canada the legend of Steamboat\u00a0 \u201cthe whistlin\u2019 hoss\u201d was known.<\/p>\n
Steamboat was sold to John Coble of Bosler not long after the cruel incident that gave him his name. Coble saw the black for what he was and began entering him in rodeos such as the Festival of Mountains and Plains and Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo.\u00a0 The bronc started taking first place from the start, and much to the pain and suffering of many a cowboy his career was off and bucking.<\/p>\n
“I’ve seen ’em all for 65 years and I never saw a buckin’ hoss to top Steamboat. First off, he was big and powerful\u20141,100 pounds\u2014and tireless. Fact is, he was the closest thing to perpetual motion that ever wore hair. He’d start to squat when they threw the saddle on him and by the time the bronc buster was set in the stirrups Steamboat’s belly’d be almost touchin’ the arena dust. Then, the second they’d jerk that blindfold he’d explode! He’d bust out to the middle of the arena as if he wanted the stage all to himself and he’d put on the damnedest exhibition of sunfishing and windmilling I ever seen. His best trick was to swap ends between jumps and come down ker-slam on four ramrod legs. His head and forelegs would be twisted one way and his rump and hind legs another. When he was goin’ all out, he seemed to be on a great big invisible pogo stick. Few men could stand that kind of battering without bleeding from the nose, and most became nauseated as well. Sometimes, no matter how tight a rider laced his buckin’ corset, he’d wind up with broken ribs. Bronc riders are harder’n scrap iron, but ol’ Steamboat put some of the toughest into the hospital for repairs.” (Rodeo buff Jack Bowers in Sports Illustrated interview)<\/p>\n
It\u2019s difficult to compare the broncs of yesterday to those in today\u2019s rodeo.\u00a0 Horses did not exit a chute, but were \u201csnubbed to the saddlehorn of a rider\u201d or blindfolded while the rider mounted and then turned loose.\u00a0 Horses were ridden for 30 seconds, or sometimes until they stopped bucking.\u00a0 Regardless of the changes to the sport, Steamboat remains one of the greatest bucking horses of all time. To his last event he never stopped bucking with all he had.<\/p>\n
Coble sold Steamboat to Charley Irwin who operated a Wild West Show with his brother. In 1914, Steamboat met a sad end when he contracted blood poisoning after running into a barbed-wire fence.<\/p>\n
Steamboat earned the moniker, \u201cthe horse that couldn\u2019t be ridden\u201d from his early days at the Two Bar.\u00a0 The truth was, the bronc was ridden by some of the best bronc busters of the early 20th<\/sup> Century including: Harry Brennan, Clayton Danks, Guy Holt, Tom Minor, Dick Stanley and Thad Sowder.<\/p>\n Who\u2019s the cowboy riding Steamboat on the State symbol?\u00a0 We don\u2019t know\u2026Once again thanks for coming\u2026Okay, okay\u2026<\/p>\n Over the years the debate has been whittled down to Albert Jerome \u201cStub\u201d Farlow from Lander who rode Steamboat (for a little while at least) at the Albany County Fair Grounds, or Guy Holt. Holt rode Steamboat in Cheyenne.<\/p>\n But I have to agree with the University of Wyoming whichever horse and rider inspired the symbol \u201cthe bucking horse and rider represents the toughness and never-say-die spirit that is Wyoming.\u201d<\/p>\n What we do know about the symbol. The first use of the Bucking Horse and Rider dates back to 1918. It was used as an insignia worn by members of the Wyoming National Guard in France and German during World War I.\u00a0 The insignia used by soldiers was designed by First Sergeant George N. Ostrom of E Battery, 3rd<\/sup> Battalion, 148th<\/sup> Field Artillery Regiment, AEF. The United States Army adopted the insignia and used it as a means of identification on gun trails, trucks, helmets and other equipment. The BH&R was used extensively by Wyoming units during Korea, Vietnam as a rallying point and \u201csymbol of pride and reminder of home.\u201d<\/p>\n In 1935, then Secretary of State Lester Hunt (he later became Governor) proposed changes to the Wyoming license plate design. He commissioned Mr. Allen T. True to \u201cput to paper\u201d his concept, which included the Bucking Horse and Rider. In 1936, the famous Bucking Horse & Rider license plates debuted and the State obtained copyright for the image.<\/p>\n Wyoming\u2019s license plates have gone through many changes over the year, but every plate design included the famous Bucking Horse and Rider. No matter which horse and rider is depicted every Wyomingite displays this symbol with pride.<\/p>\n There ya go folks. Now y\u2019all can sleep well tonight knowin\u2019 the answer to this burnin\u2019 question, or ya can toss and turn fightin\u2019 about which horse and rider is depicted. Either way, I feel Cookie and me have done some good today.<\/p>\n Speakin\u2019 of my coffee makin\u2019 rattlesnake of a partner and myself, y\u2019all will notice the blog has been cut to once every other week. This might be how the trail goes for a mite longer as we get adjusted to our new campfire.\u00a0 I\u2019m sorry we won\u2019t have time to host all those top hand authors, and while we might bring one round the campfire now and again, I just can\u2019t give my word to \u2018em that I can do justice to their ace high stories\u2026and ya know what they say \u2018bout a woman\u2019s word on the trail. As for another short story\u2026well I just might have one of those bloomin\u2019 come spring.<\/p>\n Hope y\u2019all will stick with Cookie and me as we adjust to the trail and get all our mavericks herded.\u00a0 Oh, and if ya\u2019d like to mosey on over to the \u201cAbout\u201d\u00a0 area I\u2019ve added a bit more.<\/p>\n Help yourself to a bit more of Cookie\u2019s coffee iffin\u2019\u00a0 ya can stomach it, and feel free to sit \u2018round the campfire and debate those bucking horses and bronc bustin\u2019 cowboys.<\/p>\n If ya want to read more about Steamboat a good read is:\u00a0 Steamboat, Legendary Bucking Horse: His Life and Times, and the Cowboys Who Tried to Tame Him <\/i>by Candy and Flossie Moulton.<\/p>\n SOURCES:<\/p>\n http:\/\/sportsillustrated.cnn.com\/vault\/article\/magazine\/MAG1083607\/1\/index.htm<\/a><\/p>\n http:\/\/www.gowyo.com\/trads\/steamboat.html<\/a><\/p>\n http:\/\/www.wyomingtalesandtrails.com\/steamboat.html<\/a><\/p>\n http:\/\/www.prorodeohalloffame.com\/inductees\/by-category\/livestock\/steamboat\/<\/a><\/p>\n http:\/\/soswy.state.wy.us\/Services\/BHRHistory.aspx<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Now Cookie and me bein\u2019 the perceptive types know y\u2019all have been ponderin\u2019 one question over and over.\u00a0 What horse and rider is depicted as the symbol for Wyoming? Well folks the hard and fast answer is\u2026 we don\u2019t know. … Continue reading