Although it represents a bygone era of wild broncs and hard-nosed cowboys, the snubbing post is used by some horsemen for a higher level of training.
By Ross Hecox
Crazy Alice rears, stomps and bolts around the edge of the corral. She defies the lariat around her neck and uses it to drag the rancher through the dirt. It’s not until the man dallies his rope around a snubbing post in the middle of the corral that he’s able to control the wild mare.
When she hits the end of the line, she flops on the ground and then is slowly pulled closer to the post like a powerful marlin reeled into a boat.
The popular scene opens the Western film The Cowboys, and Wil Anderson, played by actor John Wayne, is the hero who subdues the wall-eyed sorrel. There are plenty of Hollywood Western scenes that stray from reality, but John Wayne’s use of the snubbing post accurately represents how cowboys trained horses in the American West for decades.
History of the Snubbing Post
The snubbing post on the Pitchfork Ranch, no longer in use, still bears the dally wacks from countless pulling matches between cowboys and broncs.
As a boy, West Texas cowboy Jimbo Humphreys saw plenty of young horses pull against a snubbing post on the Pitchfork Ranch near Guthrie, Texas.
“I can remember them using that,” says Humphreys, who now manages Guitar Ranches and lives in Dickens, Texas. “The cowboys were using that post mostly when they would still forefoot those horse colts to castrate them. That’s where those deep rope burns on the snubbing post came from. It was quite a bit rougher back then.”
From West Texas up to the Northern Plains and into the Great Basin, cowboys relied on a snubbing post to halter break young horses and introduce a saddle. In some heated instances, it also served as a shield from rank horses that decided to kick, strike or bite.
“Some horses would jump by you and then kick you,” recalls Thomas B. Saunders V of the Twin V Ranch near Weatherford, Texas. “They could just be nasty brutes. So, you would yoke them to that snubbing post, and another guy on a saddle horse would rope a hind leg and pull it back, and then you’d sack him out with a blanket. Next, you’d throw a saddle on him and make him wear it.”
For many, the snubbing post represents a harsher form of horsemanship, and for good reason. A 1926 painting by famous Western artist and author, Will James, titled “Smoky and the Snubbing Post,” portrays a cowboy roping the front feet of a wild stallion and standing near a thick post. The post is shaped almost like an hourglass from the deep grooves carved into its middle by countless taut ropes.
Despite the snubbing post’s rough and tumble history, Saunders reminds us that like any tool, it can be used in a kinder, gentler manner.
“If you understand how to use it and apply it, it’s got its place,” he says.
The use of a stout post anchored into the ground predates the American West. An illustration from the early 17th-century book, Le Maneige Royal, depicts a horse trotting softly around an 8-foot tall pole, tipping its nose toward its handler with a little slack in the rope that is wrapped around the pole. The book’s author, Antoine de Pluvinel, was a respected French horseman considered a forefather of the sport of dressage. He is also known for teaching kind, humane methods of training horses.
How are snubbing posts used today?
In recent years, several respected horsemen have begun using a snubbing post, but their methods are far from yesterday’s forefoot roping, blindfold-and-bite-an-ear style of breaking colts.
“I have my young horses move around it in a circle and learn to be supple and round,” says champion cow horse trainer Ben Baldus of Gainesville, Texas. “They should never pull back or fight. I use it to enhance their training. I’m just using the post as an anchor point, where I can take one dally around the post and the horse can’t pull me around.
“I can get behind his shoulder and drive him around the circle. [The snubbing post] is teaching him better movement—how to accelerate at a lope and keep his shoulder elevated.”
Baldus says several other cow horse trainers use a post. Their inspiration comes more from a philosophy shared with Pluvinel, rather than the style depicted by Will James and Smoky or John Wayne and Crazy Alice.
Today, the snubbing post at Pitchfork headquarters is no longer in use. However, Saunders keeps one firmly planted at the Twin V. Like Baldus, he makes dallies around it that build better movement, not ones that restrict, bind and force a horse into submission.
“You can yoke a horse to that pole and get them broke in the poll,” he says. “That’s what my snubbing post is for—getting them softer by using the pole the right way.” ★
Feature image: Thomas B. Saunders continues to use a snubbing post to train his horses. | Courtesy Western Horseman
This article appears in the Spring 2023 issue of the Ranch Record. Would you like to read more stories about NRHC and ranching life? When you become a member of the Ranching Heritage Association, you’ll receive the award-winning Ranch Record magazine and more while supporting the legacy and preservation of our ranching heritage. Become a member today.
