When an
animal was singled out, the parting horses, chosen and prized for their
quickness, dashed here and there through the herd with fierce leaps and
furious rushes, stopping short in a terrific sprint to whirl, flashlike,
and charge in another direction, as the quarry dodged and doubled. And
now and then an animal would succeed for the moment in passing the guard
line, only to be brought back after a short, sharp chase by the nearest
cowboy. From the rodeo ground, where for long years the grass had been
trampled out, the dust, lifted by the trampling thousands of hoofs in a
dense, choking cloud, and heavy with the pungent odor of warm cattle and
the smell of sweating horses, rising high into the clear air, could be
seen from miles away, while the mingled voices of the bellowing, bawling
herd, with now and then the shrill, piercing yells of the cowboys, could
be heard almost as far.
When this part of the work was over, some of the riders set out to drive
the cattle selected to the distant home ranch corrals, while others of
the company remained to brand the calves and to start the animals that
were to have their freedom until the next rodeo time back to the open
range.
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