Cowboy Corner: Buster Welch

It’s been over two years since we lost the acclaimed horseman and Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame inductee, and the West is still feeling the loss. The Cowboy Poet sat down with Buster Welch for a brief interview, digging into his early years as a rancher.

Red Steagall: Have you got any new stories for us? We always love to have you come back and tell us these new stories. 

Buster Welch: Well, I have to tell them or you won’t let me drink this coffee, will you? ... 

I never liked dogs around because I love to work a herd and love cattle to stand quiet and ... dogs have a tendency to stir them a little bit, and you’ve got to be smart enough to know how to use them. But anyway, I have a reputation of not wanting dogs around. ... So I had sent a crew last fall to gather cattle up where we could strip the calves and deliver them. ... J.C. Bonine, another good cowboy, helps us, and he’s right dry.  

I rode up to him and here comes a young fellow trotting up with one of those bad-looking cow dogs, one of them kind that could tear the head off, you know, followed him. J.C. looks over at me right dry and says, “There’s Bob’s dog.” Bob Byrd, he’s talking about. And I knew Bob used to have some dogs, so I didn’t say anything. ... I’m not going to hurt his feelings about that dog because I’ve got a lot of confidence in Bob. Whatever he says he can do, he can handle it.  

So I ride up to him and, unbeknowing to Bob, he doesn’t know that he had been given that dog by J.C., but he knows that dog’s aggravating him. He looks over at me and he said, “That’s my new dog.” Said, “I’d have left him home but I didn’t have anybody to take care of him.” ...  

And here I see this dog coming in a dead run behind Bob and I. And these cows are going up in a corner, and we’re going to get them settled down and let them set there a little bit, and then we’re going to drive them to the trails and strip the calves. And here I see this dog coming at a dead run. And I said to Bob, I said, “Bob, can you stop your dog?” “Oh, yeah.” He said, “I can slide him where I want him.” This dog passed us running. I’d have rather seen Superman drunk, I think. I was so disappointed in Bob not stopping that dog. And just before he hits these cattle, Bob looks over at me right dry and said, “He’s going to bring them out of the corner.”  

Well, he brought them out of that corner. I mean they was running, wide open. So all of us broke to try to get in front of them and head them before they got into some of that heavy brush, just an old wide field they was on. Dick Hart and I wound up in the front and got them stopped. ... I wasn’t going to say anything, but I just needed to let a little steam off. I said, “Boy, Dick. I wish Bob hadn’t have brought his dog.” Dick said, “That’s not Bob’s dog. That’s J.C.’s. That thing’s been following us around here four or five days.” It wasn’t J.C.’s. So Bob, see, he’s still not aware of this. And I said, “Well, can you catch him?” He said, “Well, I don’t know. I’ll try.” Handed me his horse. ...  

So he gets down and takes his pigging string and goes to this dog and the dog lets him put his hand on his head. He slips that pigging string over his neck and is going to tie a knot to where it won’t choke him, see, and he had a pretty long pigging string. Well, I’m not paying enough attention, is what I’m doing, and I’m setting too close to him. Well, boy, this dog jumps up and he looks like a fish out there on the end of that pigging string, just yelling and running in a circle, you know ... and comes under Dick’s horse and Dick’s horse kicks and he kicks pretty close to Dick and he lets the dog go. Boy, the dog leaves out of there with that rope around his neck. But he does stay off away from us then. ... 

We get [the calves] up there and stripped, and they told Bob Byrd that story at noon, and I never saw a guy laugh so. He got so tickled at that because he liked to aggravate me anyway about that dog being there, you know. So I never saw such a bunch of cowboys laugh. He got to retelling that story.

Red: Whose dog was it?

Buster: Well, he belonged to a fellow that lived up there, his wife, that they owned the rights and they kept a little deal there. But the funny thing, Cory Pounds was working for me and he’s pretty sharp, you know, and will show a good hand. And his dad was cooking for us. So we’re up there in the pens, you know, and this old big boy comes out there and said, “You know, somebody put a rope around my wife’s dog’s neck and turned him loose.” Of course, it could choke him, you know, and he was pretty concerned.  

And Cory just — we were through, see, and his dad had cleaned up and left, the cook. And he looked over at him and said, “Yeah, our cook did that.” Always laying it off on somebody else. 

The Memories in Grandmother’s Trunk

There’s the old family Bible, yellowed and worn
On the first page was her family tree.
She'd traced it clear back to the New England coast
And the last entry she made was me.

I unfolded a beautiful star pattern quilt
In the corner she cross stitched her name.
I wonder how many children it kept safe and warm
From the cold of the West Texas plain.

Life on this planet is still marching on
And I hope that my grandchildren see,
My side of life through the trinkets I’ve saved
The way grandmother’s trunk does for me.

Excerpted from Red Steagall’s book Ride for the Brand.

TV And Radio Schedule

Episodes of Red’s travel show, Red Steagall Is Somewhere West of Wall Street, air Mondays at 8:30 p.m. Central on RFD-TV. Find out more about the TV program at watchrfdtv.com and keep up with Red’s radio show, Cowboy Corner, at redsteagall.com/cowboy-corner. And be sure to visit Red’s new YouTube channel.

From our November/December 2016 issue.