Mister, You Got Yourself a Horse: Tales of Old-Time Horse Trading Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a collection of fascinating horse trading, swapping and swindling stories collected during The Federal Writers Project, a part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which in turn was one of FDR's relief programs during the Great Depression.
In the 1930's Government employed writers were still able to interview Civil War Veterans, Oregon Trail Riders, individuals who remembered the Indian Wars, and, for the purposes of this book, horse traders who made their living by travelling and trading horses before the days of the automobile. This book is a collection of the best of those stories.
Back then, due to lack of cash, no cars or trucks or other convenient transportation, and the isolation of the farms in rural Nebraska, travelling horse and mule traders with stock to swap were an important and usually welcome part of rural life. With the trader came the chance to hear some news, socialize, match wits and perhaps come out on top of a swap with some "boot" or hard-to-get cash.
These stories exude the sense of the male ego, of matching wits, and the I-did-it-to-you-first challenge that was a part of swapping stock back then. While buying a used car today may instill fear and loathing in the buyer, back then it was a two way street-both parties thought they had a chance of coming out on top and tried their best to do so. The challenge of the trade was a way of life and all parties knew the rules: watch out!
The Glossary may be worth the price of the book by itself. It not only includes terms used in trading, but also describes in simple terms the many diseases and conditions you don't want your horse or donkey to have. Another part of the book warns about and elaborates on tricks used to cover these things up. Interestingly, these pointers were part of The People's Home Library, an information source that provided advice to the public on lots of things, including how not to be had on a horse trade.
This book is funny, colorful, nostalgic and entertaining. Tall tales or not, it is well worth the reading.

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Plains folklorist Roger L. Welsch has edited a lively collection of stories by some master yarnspinners—those old-time traveling horse traders. Told to Federal Writers' Project fieldworkers in the 1930s, these stories cover the span of horse trading: human and equine trickery, orneriness, debility—and generosity.