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Show El Horse Market in Ogden Where British Government Has Bought Thousands of Animals for lis Army The British Horse Buying Commission Left to right Major Hodgson, Captain Hansen, Captain Stents. it (By Albert T. Grccnwell of the Og-yjj Og-yjj den Standard. Pictures by Frank Mc-Inlyrc.) Mc-Inlyrc.) A spirited iron gray horse, fifteen-one fifteen-one high and. 12S5' pounds in weight, trotted induiringly inlo a small pen and mixed in a band, a score or more of others like himself. His left hip bore a new, smarting brand, a turkey track over an "N. K." His right hip bore a new brand, a "U" and his jaw B bpre a "class" brand, designating artil-' B lory. His mane was roached. He was B property of the British government, B bought to draw big gun equipment. B "Done," said Major Hodgson, chief B of the British horse buying commissi commis-si sion. "Done," echoed W. IT. Dunn of the Ogden Horse Sales & Commission company. - The crack of a long whip and the rattle of "a bolt in a big corral gate closed the scene for the time. Buying Ends for Time. B It was the. end of a great epic" of horseflesh- It signified the finish of the summer horse buying campaign which the British government, through B itG horse buying commission, had Bear this in mind. Ogden alone, in all the west, is the place where horses for the British government have been bought this summer. Do you now get a glimmering of the magnitudo of this business and its importance to Ogden Do you realize that this has been the receiving point for thousands of animals, ani-mals, the best horses which ever were caught; and the shipping point? Amazing Figures. Let's clinch it home with a few figures. fig-ures. The purchases by the British government alone, in the four months it has been stationed in Ogden, have totaled approximately G000 head. -The business during' several weeks has averaged in money more than $250.-000 $250.-000 per week. During the year, the Ogden Horse Sales t Commission company, the agency which gathers and sells these horses, has handted some 52,000 head. During the first two of the four months of its activity In Ogden, the British Horse Buying commission, com-mission, accepted an average of 40U animals a week. During the past two months its average totaled 300 per week. These have been shipped to eastern seaports and sent immediately immediate-ly over-seas for duty. , takes his turn through the haltering chute. He enters this chute unsuspectingly unsuspect-ingly and then suddenly finds his way, forward and rearward, backed by strong gates. The sides arc just wide enough to hold him. lie has to submit. He is haltered. Staff Holds Court. Then a acquero leads Pinto Into the inspection paddock. Here Major Hodgson Hodg-son and his staff hold court and pass on the merits of the mount. With the Major are Captains Stents and Hansen, Han-sen, veterinarians, and Sergeant Major Alborough, all k,een judges of horseflesh. horse-flesh. Next old Napoleon is weighed and his class determined. Not that horsemen horse-men like the major or the captains need to weigh an animal nevor saw a good one who couldn't guess a "boss's" weigee to a frog's hair but they just weigh 'em on general principals. princi-pals. It all goes into the record which the sergeant major is taking in a business-like manner from his little coop near the chutes records are good things. Now comes the inspection proper. The horse is walked up to the major. ; Maybe - he is rearing and squealing, I Ready for Loading. Yard managed in Ogden for four months i past. It ended a great story of thousands thou-sands of horses, taken from the valleys val-leys and the plateaus, the deserts and the sweet-grassed mountain tops of the west, and sold for the war. It was another contribution of the great west to the great war and one whose might will smash itself home in telling tell-ing blows as the manhood of America is doing today. Western horse-flesh bred in the scented aage, reared in pure mountain and desert strong and true, dependable, spirited, horse-flesh which will ally its strength with that of. the boys who are carrying the same strength and free-blooded vigor into their part of the war. .. Ogden Only Center. It closed the final chapter of an epic winch again has sung the story of the wosL When the war called for horses th west responded. It had horses, wild and tamo, thousands of thein, and when the call came the process started. start-ed. Scouts penetrated the farthest ranges, visited the cattle centers, inspected in-spected the bands, made their selections selec-tions and shipped their animals to Ogden. Foreman Meril Bryan is Shown on His The horses bought are for two branches of the service cavalry and artillery. They must measure up to a rigid standard and none but the be?t are taken. And the average life on the battle field of army horses is said to bo but .a few" days however that's a grewsome talc. Identification Tags. When Dobbin or Pinto first steps from the car which carried him from his native, range lo tnc sales yard, until he Is "loaded" again for shipment ship-ment east, his life at the yards is filled with many strange experiences all driving homo the fact jnto his horsy brain that men is his master and he must submiL Milling and snorting the bunch comes out of the car and Into the receiving re-ceiving pen. If there are other animals thero each horse of the same band is tagged on the tail with a copper disk, bearing identification marks. Mixed and mixed, changed about in the labyrinth laby-rinth of pens and runs, it makes no difference the horses Bill Jones of Sweetwater Flat unloads can't bo lost or confused with another's. From the receiving pen Mr. Horse Horse In the Foreground. maybe he is quiet and friendly. Major looks him over. Then the captains, veterinarians both, give him a scrutiny scrut-iny which defies the smallest defect. Rejections Final. The three confer. If old man horse goes inlo the pen west of the paddock he is due to spend the rest of his natural nat-ural life munching grass near the snow capped peaks of the Wasatch, or near some equally homely place he loves. He in rejected. "Reject" calls the major in such a case. It is a rejection, literally, absolutely abso-lutely and finally. There is none of the atmosphere of the "hoss trade" In this deal. There Is no quibbling, no hotly denied defect and hotly pressed merit. If it is a reject" it means that your horse could not be sold to the British government for a shilling. But the story doesn't end there. If all horses were rejected It would; Gets Turkey Foot. When he is accepted the horse leaves the paddock for the branding chute He 'is here locked again into an oblong. box which makes him feel so Impotent and insulted that he usually just sulks in trembling resignation Ht A Typical Artillery Horse of the Class Purchased in Ogden by the British Commission. This Hors Was Posed by Majr-Hodgson,. Who UH3 a. Way With Horses." H Jimmy Eastburn Atop Lorgnette Lizzy. whilo his human tormentors ply branding-iron and clippers, transforming transform-ing him from a wild, care-free plug, to "property of the British government." The turkey foot and "N. K.," the "U" and the class brand arc all applied hero and his mane is roached away from his arched neck by the tickling clippers, snipping gingerly into the long hair. Onlv a thin lock is left. "That's for "t hie British Johnnies lo grab hold of when they get awn, so's they won't take the hoss's ear' languidly lan-guidly remarks a long buckaroo from between the fence rails. Don't know If it's -true or not but it's a good 'joke. Fun Then Starts. Now comes the whoop-a-la, the real smoke and dust, the thunder and tarnation. tar-nation. The horse is turned from th? branding chute into the breaking run and he here first feels he is free after his 'purgatory of inspection. It is here also he feels, many for the first time, a saddle and the roweling spurs of .i rider. He is saddled and bridled and mounted. He is ridden from ono end of . the run to the other so the commission com-mission may see his paces. Some go in docile willingness. Others these the sports, tear a hole out of tarnation and raise all the cain there is. They snort and squeal, bite and kiqk, plunge and rear, shake and pitch, do a sundance and a sashay, do a stiff-leg stiff-leg and a frog step and show all the fancy. fljrts and flings that a buckln' horse over learned at school. They try lo jump a ten -foot fence oi' break through a six-by -four. They try to smash their riders against the blue sky and paw them into the black earth. They hunt their souls for all the meanness they ever posspssed and kick it out in one wicked five minutes of colossal protest. Horse Hasn't a Chance. But say poor old horse never has a chance against the two-legged, steel kneed, wiry specimens of horsemc-n who mount him. Rigged out in chaps, spurs and boots; inspired by a pure love of riding such as those dyed-in-the-wool horsemen only know the meaning of the love of mastering a horse who thinks he can throw any -thing with spurs on they ride your old nag up and down the run and back and forth until he is quite hlmscif again. If a horse is too mean to be broke in the "run" he is held over and taken to the breaking corrals a few blocks 'south on the river. Here the real battles are waged. They are too real to describe adequately. It takes a buckaroo to do that, just after he' has been bitten on the shoulder and kicked in the belly with two hind feet he can do it quite sufficiently then. Loading Only Remains. Now comes the last chapter, supposing sup-posing the horse is broken. It is a simple and prosalo chapter, none ot the romance slittering in it which filled the others. It ends simply and without rattle or show. Tho horse is penned with his fellows, all with the turkey track and the "N. K.," tho "U" brand and the class brand. A grunting switch engine backs a long line of cal-tlc cal-tlc cars along the "yards siding" and when all is ready and the whips are cracking and tho buckaroos yelling Dobbin goes inquiringly up the gangway gang-way into the car. Nineteen to a car says Major Hodgson and nineteen 'tis not too crowded for comfort, just right for traveling. Here ends the story and what remains re-mains is said with a normal pulse. Personnel of Commission. Major Hodson is the typo of man whom one likes to meet. Burned with the sun from many campaigns, knowing1 know-ing1 much that would make good "copy," businesslike yet humanely interested, in-terested, he is a splendid example of the English army man. He likes golf and has been taken upwith much interest in-terest by Ogden's best people. With the major are the two captains, Stent and Hansen. Captain Stents has made many friends among the people of Ogden Og-den while he has been here. The whole city knows Captain Hansen. Six foot four of him, 23S pounds heavy, he is a rare figure of a man. Service stripes for nineteen years duty tells the tale for Sergeant .Major Alborough, a man who has fought the Fuzzy-Wuzzies and the Bashi-Bazoirks and has "soldiered it" In nearly every! quarter of the globe. The sergeant likes his pipe, he likes to sit on a bale of hay with his sleeves rolled up and ' count horses going through tho runs.' "Twenty-six" he yells as a band goes teearingp by, seemingly all together, and you'wonder how he did it. Wonderful Growth. Now Mr. Otto Meek and Mr. W- H. Dunn own and manage the Ogden Horse Sales & Commission company and they have made Ogden, known some years ago as having a "stockyard" "stock-yard" into one of the liveliest stock centers of Amerlcn America without reserve. They have sent thejr buyers into every range from Canada to Mexico Mex-ico and west to the Pacific to hunt mounts for sale at Ogden and Ogden harf become known to horse raisers, ranchers and farmers, besides the army of horsemen who buy and sell, as a center of the husinoss. , The big-contract. for -the British government Just finished is a typical example of tho work these two men are doing. The company was reorganized reor-ganized last year and wrote "capital of ?150,000" on its stationary. It was just organized the year before that. Is that a rise or not? |