The Texas Longhorn

​The characteristics of the longhorn are of spectacular color, with shadings and combinations so varied that no two are alike. They reach maximum weight in eight or ten years and range from 800 to 1500 pounds. Although slow to mature, their reproductive period is twice as long as that of other breeds. Most longhorn cows and bulls have horns of four feet or less. However, mature steers have an average span of six feet or more, and a 15-year-old's horn span reaches up to nine feet. J Frank Dobie thus pictured a herd of Texas Longhorns:

J. Frank Dobie, folklorist, was born on a ranch in Live Oak County, Texas, on September 26, 1888, the eldest of six children of Richard J. and Ella (Byler) Dobie.

Tall, bony, coarse-headed, coarse-haired, flat-sided, thin-flanked, some of them grotesquely narrow-hipped, some with bodies so long that their backs swayed, big ears cawed into out outlandish designs, dewlaps hanging and swinging in rhythm with their energetic steps, their motley-colored sides as bold with brands as a relief map of the Grand Canyon--mightily antlered, wild-eyed, this herd of full-grown Texas steers might appear to a stranger seeing them for the first time as a parody of their kind. ​

But however they appeared, with their steel hoofs, their long legs, their stag-like muscles, their thick skins, their powerful horns, they could climb the highest mountains, swim the widest rivers, fight off the fiercest bands of wolves, endure hunger, cold, thirst and punishment as few beasts of the earth have ever shown themselves capable of enduring.
On the prairies, they could run like antelopes; in the thickets of thorn and tangle, they could break their way with the agility of panthers. They could rustle in drought or snow, smell out pasturage leagues away, live--without talking about the matter-like true captives of their own souls and bodies.