CHAPTER 1
Lyle R. Lybbert ... Cowboy – Author
By Carl Lybbert
Lyle's brother, Carl, author of this article, writes: "In reading mybrothers articles in the Western Horsemen Magazine and the glowingreports submitted to the "Letters From Riders" section of themagazine, I thought your readers might be interested in learningsomething about the life of a Lyle Lybbert. I wrote for the CanadianCattlemen's magazine for three years prior to moving from Canada tothe Evergreen State in the U.S.A. Most of my work was on assignmentand biographical in nature. It suddenly occurred to me that of all thebiographies I had written, there are few more interesting than the lifeof my own brother. And if you don't think so after reading his story,then the fault will be mine."
Lyle Raymond Lybbert was born in the town of Raymond, Alberta,Canada, January II, 1918. When he was scarcely a long yearling, helost his father. When he was about eight, our family moved onto a ranch inMiddle Coulee, where my brother Mel was to earn the living for ourwidowed mother and her children. That same year, Mel decided thatLyle should be a cowboy with the rest of the outfit; so he traded for acouple of yearning colts that were to be Lyle's remuda. Lyle namedone of the colts Laddie and the other colt Two Step. He broke themto lead and ride all by himself. One day he had saddled Two Step tohelp Mel jingle the work horses. By now the gray colt was kid-gentle,and Lyle was resting his head on the colt's mane, waiting for Mel tocurry his horse. Both Lyle and Two-Step were half asleep as Mel wasconcluded his task of currying. With a sly grin Mel stuck the currycomb beneath two steps tail as he walked past, were upon the coltclamped down with his tail and Two-Step came unwound. This wasLyle's first exhibition as a bronc rider and he did it up brown.
The following year we lost our mother, but a gentle sister and anoble brother-in-law took Lyle into their home along with an olderbrother and a sister and raised them as her own. The Snow outfit wasmostly a horse ranch in those days and here Lyle learn how to handlehorses. Mel decided that Laddie and Two Step were putting on toomuch weight for riding horses so he traded for a little quitemare for Lyle to ride. The mare was a true albino, and her eyes werewhite "all over" as Lyle put it. He named her Alby. The sunlightseemed to hurt her eyes, and when Lyle turner her out in the littlepasture, where they kept the jingle ponies, she would often seek theshade of a large tree that grew in one corner of the field. She wasexceedingly hard to catch, and Lyle was hard put to catcher byhimself. One day he conceived of an idea; while Alby was dozing witheyes closed in the shade. Thus with all the stealth of the Comanche,Lyle climbed into the tree and jumped onto the mare's neck.Frightened nearly to death Alby bolted wildly, but my brother hungon for dear life. Finally Alby gave up and came to a standstill. Fromthen on this became a standard procedure until Alby decided she'drather brave the heat of the sun than the startling experience of beingjumped on from a tree.
In 1932 my younger brother signed on with the huge Knight andWeston ranching Co. Ltd. His first job was that of a mule skinner.Along with Inj Betts and Harold Lee, he drove a 12 head hitched ofhalf broke mules pulling a Rod Weeder. By mid-summer, however,Ray Knight had promoted all three boys to riding the range. At thattime the Knight and Weston outfit ran close to 1,000 horses – mostlydraft horses, but also a good number of light, well bred English Thoroughbreds.With close to 300 horses in the Remuda, Ray decided thatno one would be allowed to ride any one horse more often than oncea week, this was done in an effort to keep the whole remuda "rodedown."
Lyle claims he walked home more times than the most virtuousbell in Western Canada. By fall, he said he was getting used to comehome in camp on the same horse he went out on. Before the summerwas out, these three boys were even trying out horses for the ranch'sbucking string.
One day Knight and his foreman, Andy Newell, were watching asthe boys riding out bucking horse after bucking horse. "By gosh Andy",said Knight "we've got to think of another way to try out the buckinghorses – them boys are break in all my good bucking horses to ride."
With that thought in mind, Knight rig up a dummy saddle with atrip-cinch so he could pull the trip rope and allow the horse to buckoff everything, thus building up a Bronc's confidence.
This was the introduction of the use of a dummy saddle in tryingout bucking horses.
Ray Knight was known as the "Father of the Stampede" in Canada– he produced the first rodeo or stampede in Canada in 1902. Heowned one of the best strings of bucking horses in the business. RayKnight was also very influential in the Calgary stampede. Somebelieve the Calgary Stamped would not have succeeded with out RayKnight. Many of his horses received national recognition – SlimSweden, Easy Money, Lonely Valley, Grey, and Horn Toad were someof his best.
Many say that Midnight was the greatest bucking horse of all time.From the time Jim McNabb of Fort MacLeod, Alberta, first enteredmidnight in the Calgary Stampede in 1924, he was destined for fame.In Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, London, New York, Cheyenne, andother large cities, he bucked off all comers. Only a few men ever rodehim. The greatest of these bronc riders was Pete Knight of Crossfield,Alberta. Pete drew this great bucking horse in Toronto in 1926and rode him to the whistle – the first time this had ever been done.When midnight was sold to McCarty and Elliott and was shipped tothe United States it was a toss-up between Five Minutes to Midnight,Easy Money, or Slim Sweden as to which would fill Midnight's horseshoes.Slim Sweden, up to that time, had remained unridden, and itwas an exciting time in 1932 when once again the greatest bronc riderof them all drew an unrideable horse. Pete Knight had drawn SlimSweden in the finals in Calgary. This was to be the ride of the year,but just before Pete made his ride, a mountain shower came up whichdrove all folks out ofthe bleachers to seek shelter and the rain turnedthe arena into a batter of mud.
When some Slim Sweden came out of the chute, he started hispowerful drive that had unseated so many bronc riders in the past, butthe slick mud gave way under his straining drive and he fell heavily tothe ground. Pete was given a re-ride on the same horse, but the samething happened – Slim Sweden fell a second time. This was his undoing.For several rodeos after that he simply refused to buck. Knightwisely retired him for the balance of the season. When spring arrivedin 1933, Lyle was again employed at the Knight Ranch. Knight had hisbucking string in the corral and Slim Sweden was in great shape.
He had wintered well and showed signs of a promising summer. "Iwant you to throw a saddle on Slim Sweden, Lyle" said Knight "I can'twait to see if he is going to fire."
My brother did as he was instructed. Slim Sweden was back tohis old form – but Lyle rode him. At the Dominion Day Celebration[July Ist] at Raymond, that year, Lyle signed up in the bronc ridingevent because he was now traveling with Ray Knight's bucking string.
Everyone was anxious as it was announced that Slim Sweden wasgoing to contest once again. The man who drew him came out on himmaking a good ride till Slim Sweden turned on. He almost bucked hisrider off when all of a sudden, with victory in right in his grasp, he quitcold. Ray Knight shook his head sadly. "That's sure to bad" he said tomy bother Mel. "I sure thought the old horse was coming back; outat the ranch that young brother of your's rode the horse this spring,and durn'ed if he didn't give Lyle all he had, that boy sat up there andfull stroked him all the way, that kid has makin's of a bronc rider.
At this same rodeo, my brother drew a black mare called BlackBeauty. When they came out of the chute, Black Beauty really turnedon. This was the final event, and Lyle was making the bronc ride of hislife.
"My gosh," exclaimed veteran bronc rider Andy Lund "would yuhlooked at that boy paw that ol' mare."
It was the ride of the day. Lyle won the bronc riding while contestingagainst some of the best bronc riders in the business – he was18. His next rodeo took him to Cardston the two day show that wasa ticket-getter in those days. Jack Galbraith, who ranched just northof Browning, Montana, was furnishing the stock for this show. JackGalbraith was a horse buyer who often purchased horses from RayKnight – mostly bucking horses. He'd seen Lyle ride some of Knightsbest buckers. When it was announced that he had drawn one of Galbraith'stop bucking horses, an audible groan went threw the grandstand.Old Surprise had a reputation longer than a brood mare's tail.
As Lyle was tightening down, Herman Linder sauntered up to him."Lyle," he said, "I've pulled that'll horse in the draw at least five times– I've qualified on him only twice. I think the best way to ride him isto open him up first so yuh don't get-goose-egged, than just coastwith him.
Polisher your spur buttons so yuh look good to the judges,but don't try to spur him much."
Up in the grandstand Jack Galbraith was instructing his 17-year-oldson. "I want you to go down there an tell that Lybbert boy to set hissaddle back just a bit more than one would ordinarily do. I want tosee him ride that Surprise. He's a good boy, and a bronc ridden fool.Go tell them that, boy."
When Jack's son delivered the message, he neglected to informLyle where the advice was coming from. "Well thanks, son – the boywas a whole year younger than Lyle – I reckon I'm gonna have enoughtrouble ridin' one end of this ol' pony. I don't want too much of bothends." He thanked the boy anyhow, but he remembered that HermanLinder had just counseled him. Herman was one of the top bronc ridersin the world at that time he had won 21 titles in 10 years to prove it.Old Surprises came out of the chute in his most conventional manner.Lyle was putting up his usual good ride. Just two seconds before theride would be complete, Surprised dropped off his left shoulder; Lylemissed the shoulder with his spur and bucked off.
"That's why they call him Surprise" grinned Herman as Lyle walkedback to the chutes. "I could see it coming – I knew exactly when andwhere."
What could have been an interesting career in bronc riding androdeo work was interrupted when Lyle signed on with the CanadianArmed Forces. For four years he served in Belgium, England, France,and Germany. At the conclusion of his Army career, he tried his handat farming. This proved to be un-fruitful so he turned his efforts topolice work.
He took a job with the town police force at Cardston, a town thatlies on the banks of Lee's Creek. One morning the haze that it hungin their air thickened into rain clouds in the foothills becoming heavierand darker, and the rain that had been intermittent began falling like aheavy veil. It was Lyle's Day off, and he and his son Dean had beenjoy riding. As they rode past Lyle's home they learned that it hadbeen announced that Lee Creek was rising and that a heavy crest wasbuilding up in the foothills further west, Lyle suddenly remembered afeedlot full of live cattle, down below the town. It wasa feedlot right next to Lee's Creek and was directly in the path of thecoming flood. He and his son decided to ride their horses the 2 milesto the feedlot and open the gates so the cattle could be free to seekhigher ground.
The people on the lower flats were evacuating to higher groundand ranches to the west had sent reports by telephone that the crestwas the worst ever, and that heavy rain was still falling. Lyle and hisson began to hurry passing pedestrians informed them that thefloodwaters were almost upon them. They knew that the owners ofthe feedlot were in Lethbridge 50 miles away.
By the time they reach the cattle, water was already runningswiftly across the road and building rapidly in volume. Uprootedtrees and debris made it difficult for the horses. Lyle was riding aregistered pure bred mare that had recently been bred to a valuedstud.
He had just turned down $1,000 for the mare. They tore down asection of the corral and the terrified cattle fled to the safety ofhigher ground. Lyle and his son then turn their horses back the waythey had come. The water was rising rapidly now. As they movedalong, the mare my brother was riding, stepped off the end of acovert, while trying to keep her footing in the swirling waters. Shetook one surprised gasp and filled her lungs with water. My brotherwas swept off of the mare as she went under. He was washed againstthe trunk of a small tree where he held on briefly.
As he clung to the precarious perch, he noticed that Dean wasriding frantically for help. Suddenly a large section of the corral camefloating down stream, toward Lyle, one end of that wooden fence clungto the tree he was holding onto and the other of the fence swungaround and lodged against a small boathouse that had floated downstream ahead of everything else. Lyle was quick to take advantage ofthis wooden floating sidewalk so he literally walked to the boathouse.No sooner had he reached the security of that building when a hugewave of water pushed the wooden fence sidewalk on down stream.Also gone was the tree he had just walked away from.
By now, TV and radio crews from Lethbridge had arrived; theybegan a blow-by-blow description of Lyle's activities in his fight life. Asmall group of Mounties tried to reach him in a row boat but theyhad to turn back because of the floating debris. They tried a secondtime, this time Lyle's son Dean was walking chest deep in the waterahead of the row boat and two Mounties, Dean had a rope tiedaround his chest just in case the water got the best of him. About ahalf hour later a group of men from Cardston who had a powerboatrushed onto that raging water and rescued Lyle Lybbert.
This was the same storm that piled up such devastation innorthern Montana. Especially Birch Creek and the Two MedicineRiver it was said they were running 20 feet above normal and thenthey converged into the Marias River. Huge steel bridges were tornfrom their foundations and toppled into a twisted mess as the rushingwaters slammed into them. The manager of KSEN radio in Shelby,Montana took his private plane up to view the floods and to give arunning commentary of its progress over his radio. A dam had burstNorth of Shelby, Montana and had swept down into the town, fillingbasements and washing out bridges and forcing people to higherground.
At the confluence of the Birch Creek, Two Medicine, and the MariasRiver, the man in the airplane noticed about 20 head of horses grazingon the River bottom. He could see from the vantage point both thehorses and the oncoming flood. The pilot swept his plane down toscare the horses, but they began running the opposite direction. Suddenlythe floodwaters were upon them, the man in the airplane washorrified as the 20 foot crest came down on that herd of horses. Toolate, they had tried out-run the flood, but could not, the man watchinghelplessly as the rushing waters gulped up the horses much as ravenoussow would have gobbled up a brood of baby chicks.
So Lyle met a much better fate than the horses. Although he hasbeen a horse lover all of his life, my brother has finally settled downto a steady job with the health of animals branch, of the Departmentof Agriculture. Through the vicissitudes of life, he has managed tocome on in pretty good shape. There had been a few times in thisride through life that he might have been forced to pull a little leatherto stay up there, but most of the time he had been able to qualify. Ithas never been his sole desire to be numbered among the champions– he has been, is now, content just to place in the average.
