Faster horses
Well-known member
I liked his cowboy poetry and found what he recited today:
Down where the ponies come to drink
Where the Ponies Come to Drink
Up in Northern Arizona
there's a Ranger-trail that passes
Through a mesa, like a faëry lake
with pines upon its brink,
And across the trail a stream runs
all but hidden in the grasses,
Till it finds an emerald hollow
where the ponies come to drink.
Out they fling across the mesa,
wind-blown manes and forelocks dancing,
Blacks and sorrels, bays and pintos,
wild as eagles, eyes agleam;
From their hoofs the silver flashes,
burning beads and arrows glancing
Through the bunch-grass and the gramma
as they cross the little stream.
Down they swing as if pretending,
in their orderly disorder,
That they stopped to hold a pow-wow,
just to rally for the charge
That will take them, close to sunset,
twenty miles across the border;
Then the leader sniffs and drinks
with fore feet planted on the marge.
One by one each head is lowered,
till some yearling nips another,
And the playful interruption
starts an eddy in the band:
Snorting, squealing, plunging, wheeling,
round they circle in a smother
Of the muddy spray, nor pause
until they find the firmer land.
My old cow-horse he runs with 'em:
turned him loose for good last season;
Eighteen years; hard work, his record,
and he's earned his little rest;
And he's taking it by playing,
acting proud, and with good reason;
Though he's starched a little forward,
he can fan it with the best.
Once I called him--almost caught him,
when he heard my spur-chains jingle;
Then he eyed me some reproachful,
as if making up his mind:
Seemed to say, "Well, if I have to--
but you know I'm living single..."
So I laughed.
In just a minute he was pretty hard to find.
Some folks wouldn't understand it,--
writing lines about a pony,--
For a cow-horse is a cow-horse,--
nothing else, most people think,--
But for eighteen years your partner,
wise and faithful, such a crony
Seems worth watching for, a spell,
down where the ponies come to drink.
by Henry Herbert Knibbs, from Songs of the Outlands, 1914
In 1919, celebrated illustrator and writer Will James drew a piece titled "Where the Ponies Come to Drink," displayed on line by the Montana State Library. Could James have been inspired by Knibbs' 1914 poem? No information about the connection has come to light (we welcome any comments, email us. The fellow Canadians were contemporaries and had friends in common, such as Eugene Manlove Rhodes, whose official papers at New Mexico State University New Mexico State University contain correspondence with both James and Knibbs.
Down where the ponies come to drink
Where the Ponies Come to Drink
Up in Northern Arizona
there's a Ranger-trail that passes
Through a mesa, like a faëry lake
with pines upon its brink,
And across the trail a stream runs
all but hidden in the grasses,
Till it finds an emerald hollow
where the ponies come to drink.
Out they fling across the mesa,
wind-blown manes and forelocks dancing,
Blacks and sorrels, bays and pintos,
wild as eagles, eyes agleam;
From their hoofs the silver flashes,
burning beads and arrows glancing
Through the bunch-grass and the gramma
as they cross the little stream.
Down they swing as if pretending,
in their orderly disorder,
That they stopped to hold a pow-wow,
just to rally for the charge
That will take them, close to sunset,
twenty miles across the border;
Then the leader sniffs and drinks
with fore feet planted on the marge.
One by one each head is lowered,
till some yearling nips another,
And the playful interruption
starts an eddy in the band:
Snorting, squealing, plunging, wheeling,
round they circle in a smother
Of the muddy spray, nor pause
until they find the firmer land.
My old cow-horse he runs with 'em:
turned him loose for good last season;
Eighteen years; hard work, his record,
and he's earned his little rest;
And he's taking it by playing,
acting proud, and with good reason;
Though he's starched a little forward,
he can fan it with the best.
Once I called him--almost caught him,
when he heard my spur-chains jingle;
Then he eyed me some reproachful,
as if making up his mind:
Seemed to say, "Well, if I have to--
but you know I'm living single..."
So I laughed.
In just a minute he was pretty hard to find.
Some folks wouldn't understand it,--
writing lines about a pony,--
For a cow-horse is a cow-horse,--
nothing else, most people think,--
But for eighteen years your partner,
wise and faithful, such a crony
Seems worth watching for, a spell,
down where the ponies come to drink.
by Henry Herbert Knibbs, from Songs of the Outlands, 1914
In 1919, celebrated illustrator and writer Will James drew a piece titled "Where the Ponies Come to Drink," displayed on line by the Montana State Library. Could James have been inspired by Knibbs' 1914 poem? No information about the connection has come to light (we welcome any comments, email us. The fellow Canadians were contemporaries and had friends in common, such as Eugene Manlove Rhodes, whose official papers at New Mexico State University New Mexico State University contain correspondence with both James and Knibbs.
