horses – TEXAS HISTORY NOTEBOOK

Two Texas Horses – Traveler and Dash for Cash

Traveler was a former railroad work horse that rose to fame for a short time as a race horse in a career that ended about 120 years ago. He is better known for his offspring. His actual ancestry is unknown, but he was believed to have been born in New York state around 1880 to and was transported to Texas around 1890 as a work horse for a railroad contractor. He had no name at that time and was a utility animal, used to pull an implement called a dirt scraper. At one point, the railroad contractor decided that a mule would be better and traded with an East Texas man named Self. Self determined that the horse had a talent for racing and began match racing him with other horses. The horse was then traded to an owner by the name of Seay who also raced him. How and when he was given the name of Traveler is also not precisely known. Finally the horse suffered a career ending injury and was sold possibly several more times until 1903, when he was acquired by owners Will and Dow Shely of Alfred, Texas. The Shely brothers used Traveler as one of the herd sires at their ranch.

Sergeant Reckless

About five miles south of the Fort Worth Stockyards in the Cultural District is a statue that was placed in the Alice Walton Cowgirl Park in 2019. The park is adjacent to the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame and is named for Walton, a longtime benefactor of the Hall of Fame. One of the newest additions to the area is a statue of a horse bearing a load on its back, carrying it up a hill. This was a statue of the American warhorse named Sergeant Reckless who distinguished herself in the Korean Conflict in the 1950s.

Rex Cauble and Cutter Bill

Rex Cauble was born August 15, 1913 in the Hill County town of Vaughan, Texas. His parents were Fred C. Cauble and Lou Butts Cauble who were cotton farmers. One of his first jobs was in the oilfield where he worked as a roughneck. He tried his own hand at drilling and was successful at that, as well. Always fond of ranch life, Cauble invested in horses, was a very good competitive rider in the 1960s and came to own a prize stud named Cutter Bill. Settling in North Texas, Cauble founded two western wear stores, named after his cutting horse. The stores were branded Cutter Bill’s Western World with locations in Houston and Dallas in the late 1960s. At the opening of the Houston store, the horse was brought in and his hoof prints were imprinted in the wet cement of the sidewalk.