| To
own a completely legitimate livestock brand in Texas
it must be registered in the county where the brand is being used.
A brand
may be canceled or abandoned by branding a bar across the original brand. This
is called venting or barring out a brand. Only in Texas
and for a short period of time, a series of letters, branded on the neck of an
animal denoted the county of origination. This practice was abandoned quickly.
When early day trail herds were gathered for driving north to market,
several brands might be included so a "road brand" was added to the owner's brands.
It was not unusual for these herds to be sold several times along the way and
other road brands added. Often when they reached Dodge or Wichita, Kan., they
were described as "burned till they looked like a brand book."
Always
read a brand from left to right, top to bottom and from outside to inside. A brand
can be flying, lazy, benched, open letter, tumbling, walking, rocking, swinging,
boxed, circled, raftered, mashed, backward and on and on.
The letter O
can be round, mashed, squashed, quarter-circle, half-circle or three-fourths a
circle. A circle within a circle is called a double circle.
A bar, the
most simple design, can become a slash or a cut and slash, an I, a one or (as
was used by John Chisum,) extended as a fence rail branded horizontally on the
side of the animal. If you have a few moments and enjoy a challenge, draw a letter
then add all the descriptions listed above to the letter to make a brand.
If by chance the old-time cowboys ran onto a brand that was blotched, blotted,
distorted or otherwise unreadable, they each had pet names for the design often
making fun of the mark. Among favorite names were fluidy-mustard, whang-doodle,
fool brand or the worst description of all, a fly swatter.
Mexican brands
tended to be artistic and flowery often bringing out such descriptions as, "the
map of Mexico, a skillet of snakes or a bucket of ropes."
An odd brand
in Wyoming was registered as a Revolving H but was unreadable to all but local
ranchers. The old cowboys named it "danmfino." When asked to translate the word
they answered, "Damned if I know."
© Delbert
Trew
"It's All Trew"
February
22, 2011 column
Delbert Trew is a freelance writer and retired rancher. He
can be reached at 806-779-3164, by mail at Box A, Alanreed, TX 79002, or by e-mail
at trewblue@centramedia.net. For books see DelbertTrew.com. His column appears
weekly.
More Texas
Ranching |
