The Magazine of the American Landowner is an essential guide for investors, landowners, and those interested in buying or selling land. The award-winning quarterly is known for its annual survey of America's largest landowners, The Land Report 100.
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T E X A S 2 0 1 6 | The LandReport 83 LANDREPORT.COM G au aucho, paniolo, stockman, vaquero — the term for cowboy changes from region to region and country to country. As the ancestral home of A merican ranching, King Ranch has its own m oniker: Kineño, a word whose etymology can be traced back to Richard King (1824–1885) himself. For more than a century and a half, those who labor on the ranch this rugged riverboat captain forged out of the Wild Horse Desert have been known as Kineños, King's Men. Below me in the rich, dark dirt, half a dozen Kineños are doing exactly what their fathers and grandfathers and great-greats did right here at Ebanito and at dozens of other cow camps on the great ranch's four divisions. No doubt a Kineño from Captain King's day would recognize countless aspects of today's chores: the teamwork, the techniques, and the traditional gear. What he wouldn't recognize is the horseflesh. In the mid-nineteenth century, horses in South Texas were much more compact. Descended from the wild mustangs from which the Wild Horse Desert takes its name, these hardy mounts were sur- vivors. Three centuries of brutal selection pressure by man, beast, and Mother Nature had instilled in the Spanish mesteño an ability to do more with less. Rounded up as two-year-olds, they were completely unfamiliar with human hands, let alone saddles, bits, and bridles. They were corralled and broke using methods that would make any horseman wince. Richard King chose only the best mares for his manadas, and he sorted these bands of broodmares by color. In 1868, he traveled to Kentucky to acquire Thoroughbred stallions to cross with his mares. Through selective breeding to Thoroughbred bloodlines, the average size of a King Ranch horse gradually increased to more than 15 hands. The captain found a ready market for the get of these mares. Both the US and the Mexican armies were eager buyers. There were other interested parties, but they didn't care to pay. Between 1869 and 1872, King Ranch lost nearly a thousand horses to rustlers. The best horses? Captain King kept those for himself and his Kineños.