SMOKY
The Cow Horse
Will James
Buccaneer Books
Cutchogue, New York
Copyright 1926 Charles Scribner's Sons; renewal 1954
Copyright 1926 Charles Scribner's Sons; renewal 1954
Auguste Dufault
International Standard Book Number: 1-56849-236-7
For ordering information, contact:
Buccaneer Books, Inc.
P. O. Box 168
Cutchogue, New York 11935
(516) 734-5724, Fax (516) 734-7920
PREFACE
To my way of thinking there's something wrong, or missing, with anyperson who hasn't got a soft spot in their heart for an animal ofsome kind. With most folks the dog stands highest as man's friend,then comes the horse, with others the cat is liked best as a pet, ora monkey is fussed over; but whatever kind of animal it is a personlikes, it's all hunkydory so long as there's a place in the heart forone or a few of them.
I've never as yet went wrong in sizing up a man by the kind of ahorse he rode. A good horse always packs a good man, and I've alwaysdodged the hombre what had no thought nor liking for his horse orother animals, for I figger that kind of gazabo is best to be leftunacquainted with, no good would ever come of the meeting.
With me, my weakness lays towards the horse. My life, from the timeI first squinted at daylight has been with horses. I admire everystep that crethure makes, I know them and been thru so much with 'emthat I've come to figger a big mistake was made when the horse wasclassed as an animal. To me, the horse is man's greatest, most useful,faithful, and powerful friend. He never whines when he's hungry or sorefooted or tired, and he'll keep on a going for the human till he drops.
The horse is not appreciated and never will be appreciated enough,—fewhumans, even them that works him, really know him, but then there'sso much to know about him. I've wrote this book on only one horseand when I first started it I was afraid I'd run out of something towrite, but I wasn't half thru when I begin to realize I had to do somesqueezing to get the things in I wanted, and when I come to the lastchapter was when I seen how if I spent my life writing on the horsealone and lived to be a hundred I'd only said maybe half of what I feelought to be said.
The horse I wrote of in this book is not an exception, there's quite afew like him, he's not a fiction horse that's wrote about in a dreamand made to do things that's against the nature of a horse to do. Smokyis just a horse, but all horse, and that I think is enough said.
As for Clint, the cowboy who "started" Smoky, he's no exception either.He's just a man who was able to see and bring out the good that wasin the horse—and no matter how some writers describe the cowboy'shandling of horses, I'm here to say that I can produce many a cowboywhat can show feelings for a horse the same as Clint done.
But Smoky met other humans besides Clint, many others, and of allkinds, and that's where the story comes in. And now, my main ambitionas I turn Smoky loose to making hisself acquainted is that the folkswho will get to know him will see that horse as I seen him.
Will James III