The Importance of Horses on a Cattle Drive | Animals - PawNation - 3 views
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In Texas, when the cattle drives began, cowboys needed tough horses for gathering longhorns and pushing them to market.
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Before the cattle drive begins, ranchers and their ranch hands gather the cattle on a “roundup.” A cowboy on foot can’t keep up with the herd, while ATVs can’t navigate narrow trails, deep grass or cross rivers like horses can. Horses help move cattle from one pasture to another or gather cows and calves from grazing lands. Before it snows, ranch hands use their horses to comb the backcountry, collecting cattle over several days. Horses allow ranchers to cover great distances and undeveloped terrains that often have no roads
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Horses are an important partner on a cattle drive. Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images Cattle drives emerged from a growing nation's demand for beef. Between 1865 and the mid-1890s, cowboys horseback pushed more than 5 million head of longhorn cattle from Texas to the stockyards of Kansas. Today, more than 35 percent of all U.S.
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Theses are two of the main reasons that you want horses to herd cattle, for directing them and cutting rounding them up. Charli Mills said "While modern cattle drives are not as long as historic ones, horses remain vital to such ranch activities because they are specialized working animals."