Mauna Kea Oral History Appendix - Office of Mauna Kea Management

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Yes, and good feet.
The feet, that’s really amazing, sort of real quick adaptation.
You take Parker Ranch here before, Kepä, we never shod our horses, except when we
used to go for goats, or the horses went to Kawaihae. And some of them went without
shoes. The rest we worked them all without shoes. When they were turned loose for a
rest, a cowboy had about fifteen to eighteen horses on his string. Half of them would be
kept in Waimea, and half of them would be turned out on Mauna Kea for say, three
weeks or a months rest. If it’s rocky up there and dry, then their feet would get solid.
When they come back, the cowboy’s would know their horses, which horse would be
good for Ke‘ämoku where it was fairly rocky. Which horses would be good down in the
wet country. So we never shod ‘um.
You didn’t even shoe ‘um when you went out to Ke‘ämoku
No.
When you went to chase goats you said you did, where did you chase goats
Down below Ke‘ämoku, down Pu‘u Hïne‘i, down where there’s some stones.
Hmm.
Today, they shoe ‘um all, and I’ve always said, the hardest job on a ranch is to shoe a
horse. The horse can pull his foot when the nail is halfway out, that nail is as sharp as a
pin.
Yes, nail you!
Nail you. And the cowboys, they’re going to get mad, they’re going to abuse the horses
and whatnot.
They just have a special guy, by now they got to hire a special…
I understand they have each man shoe his own horse.
Oh, for real Wow!
Some of these guys are short gutted, they’re going to lick the poor horse.
Of course, yeah.
And don’t tell me they don’t.
Did you folks do any goat drives in your time
Yes.
What was the purpose for this
To get rid of the goats for eating the grass that the cattle should have been eating.
When you were young, in your early years at the ranch, what was the primary grass
Have you seen a change in the fodder and the grass
Very definite, very definite.
What were the kinds of grass you had before
They had Paspalum, about three different types of Paspalum. They had rye, a couple of
different kinds. They had Brome, they had what they called Kentucky Blue. They had
several different types of clover, they had Redtop, they had Orchard Grass. Oh, they had
all different types of grasses. Kikuyu grass didn’t come in till later.
About when do you think In the ‘50s
Mauna Kea– “Ka Piko Kaulana o ka ‘Äina”
Kumu Pono Associates LLC
A Collection of Oral History Interviews (HiMK67-050606) A:42