Monroe Veach: A Ten Dollar Horse and a Forty Dollar Saddle

The young cowboy dropped his bag on the ground and loosened the cinches on his saddle. The saddle he set a little more carefully on the small Parkerton railway stop platform. After he slipped the bridle off over the old mare’s ears, he slapped her on the butt, to send her on the familiar journey home. The boy hurried to get all of his gear in the baggage car as he heard the train starting to get up steam. Dusk was falling when Monroe Veach stepped aboard the westbound train.

The year was 1916, and Monroe was headed to a ranch job he’d been offered in Eads, Colorado, on the Flying Horseshoe Ranch. It was a large ranch that still ran a chuck wagon, and still kept their cowboys on horseback. Although he figured he wasn’t exactly running away from home, Monroe knew he was saving a lot of arguments with his family this way.

By the time Monroe Veach was born, on May 8, 1896, the “West” had already moved on from Missouri.

In August 1904, Monroe’s father took him to Pawnee Bill’s Wild West Show in Saint Joseph, Missouri.

“I liked them big hats, I liked them high heels and I loved horses,” recalled Monroe later. “I think that’s what started me on that cowboy trail.”

There, among the cowboy and Indian acts, Monroe saw a Mexican Charro doing some fabulous trick roping. When he returned home, he made a trick rope and began practicing.

“My Grandpa Veach thought Daddy was out of his mind