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Buckaroos in Paradise: Ranching Culture in Northern Nevada, 1945-1982
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Item Title
Holding a Calf with a Dally
Author/Creator
Narrator: Stewart, Leslie J.
Fleischhauer, Carl
Wilson, William A., filmmakers.
Created/Published
October 16,1979
Notes
Les Stewart's narration [NV82-CF-R4], recorded on 82/07/07 by Margaret Purser and Carl Fleischhauer, provides the background for footage of buckaroo Theodore Brown "dallying" his rope around the saddle horn while branding takes place.
The matter of how to secure a riata, or lariat, after roping a calf is important and much celebrated among cowboys. Dally and dallying refer to a method for winding the rope around the saddle horn and relying upon friction to secure it. The word is derived from the Spanish term dalevuelta, meaning "give it a turn." Most commentators associate dallying with California vaquero tradition; the practice is most prevalent in California and the northern intermountain West. Dallying is contrasted with tying the rope hard and fast, a method often associated with Texas and the Southwest. (Excellent discussions of roping, dallying, and tying hard and fast may be found in Mora 1946, 52-66, Ward 1958, 154-84, and Erickson 1981, 94-112.)
Although nylon ropes are widely used today, the classic dallying riata was made of rawhide. It might be braided in four, six, or eight strands, have a diameter ranging from 3/8 to 9/16 inches, and would typically measure from sixty to sixty-five feet. Rawhide riatas are not ordinarily thrown their entire length but may be paid out a little like a fishing line as the roped animal is brought to a stop. In the 1982 catalog from the J.M. Capriola Company of Elko, Nevada, the rawhide riata is described as a "rare collector's item," not always available, and priced from $185. Bruce Grant's Encyclopedia of Rawhide and Leather Braiding offers an excellent how-to description of riata braiding (Grant 1972,198).
The classic "hard and fast" lariat was made of "grass," usually maguey fiber, and was typically from thirty to fifty feet in length. Since dally ropers can pay out their riatas, they can use a single-cinch saddle. Tying the lariat naturally puts more strain on a saddle, and hard and fast men usually ride a "double rig," a saddle with two cinches.
Les defends the versatility of dallying. After you have dragged a calf to the branding fire, he says, you can quickly release the rope, ride a few steps closer to the calf and take new dallies on the shortened rope, giving the calf less leeway. "If I get into trouble," Les adds, "[a second man] will ride up, and I'll just hand him my rope and take the dallies off. And I can get off, fix my saddle, do whatever I have to do"([Topping] 1983, 16).
The narrator of the cowboy folksong "Windy Bill" advocates dallying and links it to California. In Glenn Ohrlin's version of the song, a bragging Texas cowboy is challenged to rope a mean steer. He does so with "his rope tied to the saddle horn" and, when the steer pulls away, his cinches break and he loses his saddle and new maguey rope.
The song concludes:
There's a moral to my story, boys, as you can plainly see.
Don't ever tie your catch-rope to your saddletree,
But take your dally welters to the California law,
And your Sam Stack tree and new magee won't go drifting down the draw.
(Ohrlin 1973, 12-14).
Subject
Activities
Roping
Lariats
Dally
Riata
Branding
Ethnography
Motion Pictures
Ninety-Six Ranch
Object Type
Medium
16mm film
Language
English
Call Number
NV9-VT6
Digital ID
afc96ran v016
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/afc96ran.v016