Description
Cattle crave and require salt. Therefore, an important part of a cowboy’s duties is to scatter salt in different locations throughout a ranch to make it easily accessible to the cattle. Some ranches, such as ours, are rough and rugged with very few roads; just trails. This makes it necessary to pack salt by horse or mule, the old-time way. Done properly, cattle can depend on finding salt. Usually salt is put out close to water, and is always put in the same location so the cattle will come to know salt is there. This practice is also an excellent tool to attract wild cattle, known as Orejanos or Mavericks. This particular drawing takes place on our ranch outside Globe, Arizona. A young cowboy who worked for us named Pete Criner is “Packin’ Salt” on two of our ranch horses, Frog and Choppo.
