Cowboy Hawk Roper

  Cowboy Hawk Roper 

  by

  Mike Capron

  Cowboys and Ropes have a way of stirring up a little excitement.  This old newspaper article was sent my way from an old school mate of Anne’s.   It was in the Alpine Avalanche 1931. I think this cowboy bargained for a little more excitement than he expected. 

Cowboy Sorry He Tried to Lasso Hawk .    It will be a long time before Zelma O’Neill, farmer-cowboy of this community again tackles a hawk.  He is laid up at his house because of an encounter he had recently with one of these birds.

While riding through his pasture O’Neill saw a hawk on a fence post and decided to rope the bird.  Unwinding his reata he threw the loop and caught the hawk by one of its legs.

This was the signal for a desperate battle in which O’Neill came out very much the loser.  The hawk flew at him, fastening one of its long, sharp claws into the man’s knees and the other into the horse’s neck.  The horse plunged in terror and agony and O’Neill fell off.  The horse kicked him on the other knee. The hawk still chug to him, having in the meantime loosened the rope from its leg.  The bird clawed great gashes upon the man’s body and this pain, together with that caused by the kick from the horse, made him unconscious.  When he revived the horse and hawk had disappeared.  He managed to drag himself home where his wife put him to bed.