Chaps and shaps
Don Coldsmith
Monday, March 5, 2007
BACK QUITE A few years, we were seriously in the horse business. We were raising, showing and selling. I was just beginning to write for the horse magazines. That ultimately led to my writing career, but that’s another story.
As we traveled, we began to notice that in different parts of the country, the language was a little different. I’ve written about regional accents before. It was once possible to guess people’s background by their way of speaking. To some extent that’s still true, but there has been a lot of change. Much of the language that we hear spoken now comes via the media. It’s pretty much all alike and many times public figures take elocution lessons just to sound like everybody else.
But, back to travel and horse talk. In various types of horsemanship, of course there were (and are) differences in equipment. A person whose background is racing may not know or care about the heavy athletic performers of the draft breeds. ALL of their equipment will be different. An animal raised to pull in a heavy wagon team may never experience the feel of a saddle in his entire life.
Even among saddle horses, bred to be ridden, there is a lot of variation. A race horse is required to have some major differences as compared to a cowboy’s roping horse. The cow horse may be pretty easy-going most of the time, but if his skill is needed, he knows it instantly and is off to do the job. His rider better be ready.
The ultra-specialized show horses which compete in jumping are, of course, tall and long-legged. They need the height. The cow-horse, by contrast, would find this extreme height a handicap in the quick turns he needs to follow the roper’s steer.
Our kids used to be amused at the accents of people in other parts of the country when using horse terms.
“Why does he say that wrong, Dad?”
I’d have to explain.
“It’s not wrong, honey. They just say it differently here.”
It’s hard to convince a kid about eight or 10 years old, who has been raised to think that everything has to be right or wrong. No middle ground.
I can remember my own indignant mood as my parents tried to explain.
“That’s the way some folks do it!”
As a preacher’s kid, with a pretty strict childhood, I had a hard time understanding that both ideas might be right, in the context at hand. What’s right for Peter might not be for Paul, as the saying goes.
This leads to many disagreements in politics, of course, and we’re reaping that harvest at the present time. There are many Americans who demand that we be a “Christian Nation” when our Constitution absolutely forbids it. (Remember “the right to worship as we please?”)
I hadn’t intended to get quite this serious with this column. The idea was born while I was watching a weather program on TV. I didn’t see the first scene as we tuned in, but it depicted a bunch of cowboys in cowboy attire SKIING. Even ski jumping, to some extent.
The winter just past has exposed a great many people to weather that was unfamiliar to them. The skiing cowboys were putting on quite a show. They were wearing chaps, which led to some interesting problems. One cowboy made a great ski jump, but his landing was such that loose snow was stuffed up between his legs and his chaps. Most cowboys’ tasks would not present this sort of a problem.
The most amusing thing, however, was the reaction of the announcer who was narrating the whole thing. He went to great lengths to relate to this problem with a poorly-selected pun. He thought it hilarious that the cowboy would now be wearing two different kinds of “chaps.” One, the leather leg protectors which are part of the cowboy’s work clothes. The other, the result of the irritation of loose snow inside the work clothes, causing areas of “chapped” skin. I’m sure he had no idea that in large areas involving cattle, the leg protectors are not chaps, but “shaps.” Wouldn’t that chap a fella?
See you down the road.