Horses in the Black Hills

Passing Down a Love of Horses
Lame Johnny Creek was named after a scoundrel who was hanged from a tree near the creek.  The land along this creek was desirable grazing land for ranchers in the Black Hills area.  One ranch on this creek called Fleur de Lys was famed for its horses that were imported from France, including Percheron and Arabian breeds.  My grandfather's family owned horses too.  My grandfather, Horace Crofford, used to talk to me for hours about horses, and I hung on every word.  He described each breed and its characteristics, all of which I remember to this day.  From him, I learned about roans, paints, pacers, mules, Appaloosas, palominos, Percherons, Arabs, quarterhorses, and Tennessee Walkers.  I learned which horses were good for racing, plowing, carriage, or riding, and I could tell you which characteristics made them good for the job. He taught me about halters, bits, and bridles. When I went away to college and visited the riding stable there, I was drawn to a beautiful horse that I could immediately recognize as a Morgan because of Baba's description - barrel chest, strong legs and hindquarters, graceful arched neck, broad forehead, and cupped face.  My identification was confirmed by the owner.

Personal Experience
One story Baba told was about a horse on his father's ranch... during the night, the horse squeezed through the door into the stock room and gorged on oats.  The oats swelled up inside the horse and he couldn't get back out through the door.  The horse raised a ruckus, and the family came running.  They got him out of the storage room somehow, and family members had to take turns walking the horse around and around the paddock all night long so he wouldn't get a ruptured intestine and die.  A drink of water would have killed the horse quickly.

Postcards from my Grandfather
Whenever Baba went to Wyoming to visit his family, he sent postcards of horses and wrote about them on the back:

As you can see, I wore these postcards out studying them!

Ranchers feud

The story is that my maternal great grandfather Horace Crofford spent a year in jail for murder.  There was a feud over grazing land between the sheep rancher (my great grandfather) and a cattle rancher.  Eventually, it was declared that my great grandfather acted in self defense and he was cleared.

Horace C. Crofford, 1891

I found several newspaper accounts of the incident:

HOT SPRINGS, July 27.—Saturday evening about 7 o'clock a tragedy occurred on Lame Johnny creek, six miles north of Buffalo Gap, in which John Taylor, a young ranchman was shot and instantly killed by Horace Crofford, ex-commissioner of Custer county, and an extensive sheep owner. The trouble arose between the parties over the possession of the range for Crofford's sheep. Crofford immediately gave himself up to the authorities at Buffalo Gap. He will waive examination and be bound over to the circuit court. Public sympathy seems to be with Crofford, who, it is claimed, did the killing In self defense. Crofford is in charge of the sheriff at Custer. Estherville Daily News, 1895

1.  The small town of Buffalo Gap.  2. the fertile land about six miles north of Buffalo Gap on Lame Johnny Creek.  I studied the maps of the area and best I can figure, this is the approximate site of the killing.  Area is at the southern end of the Black Hills National Forest, near Custer State Park.

I have not found documentation of the resolution of the case.