July 2022 - Note From the Saddle Bench

 Photo credit: Triangle Sales

Hi folks!

     Hope all is well in your world. Still hot and droughty in the big bend. Lots of calves being weaned early and some ranchers are selling off some of the cow herd. I understand the sale barns around the state are all having big runs. Hopefully it will rain in August. 

    I got to thinking about all the old timers that have passed through the shop in one way or another. A lot of them were interesting characters that seem to be dying out. So I thought I might include a short story about some of them from time to time. Since Buster Welch recently passed away I thought we could start with him. Buster used to buy lots of tipis and bed rolls from us. He ran a cowboy outfit. Most folks don’t know that Buster worked on the Reynolds long X ranch in mostly Jeff Davis county in the mountains of the big bend region of Texas during World War II. He was too young to serve in the military at that time. I had seen a photo of Buster in front of the headquarters at the rock pile division of the Long X, Circa 1940s. 

    When we started remodeling the saddle shop we wanted to hang as many old Ranching photos as possible in our new space. I called Buster and he remembered the photo, just couldn’t remember where it was but he would look. Then for the next hour I heard many stories about the Long X when Buster was there. For the next two years Buster would call every 3 or 4 months to let me know he had not found the photo but was still looking. Then he would tell me more stories like riding on the train with a hundred head of horses he had started. The ranch sold them to a dude outfit in Montana. Buster said he had about 3 rides on each one. Bet that was good watching at the dude ranch.

    Buster was in his 90s when he passed on and according to his son Ken and nephew John , Buster rode horseback up until a few months before his passing. Like my friend Rob said “I’ll take that contract”.

Hope you have a good month... hopefully fixing water gaps.

Adios for now

Gary Dunshee