On May 9, 1887, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show opened in London, giving Queen Victoria and her subjects their first look at real cowboys and Indians. A well-known scout for the army and a buffalo hunter for the railroads (which earned him his nickname), Cody had gained national prominence 15 years earlier thanks to a fanciful novel written by Edward Zane Carroll Judson. Writing under the pen name Ned Buntline, Judson made Cody the hero of his highly sensationalized dime novel The Scouts of the Plains; or, Red Deviltry As It Is. In 1872, Judson convinced Cody to travel to Chicago to star in a stage version of the book. Cody broke with Judson after a year, but he enjoyed the life of a performer and stayed on the stage for 11 seasons. Test your buffalo-huntin’ skills, pardner, and check out our vocab (and other knowledge) test today.
1. America’s first Western novel:
(a) Calamity Jane, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
(b) Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
(c) The Virginian, by Owen Wister
(d) Bronco Billy, by Mildred Payne
2. bison
(a) water buffalo
(b) a male bovine animal and especially a domestic ox (Bos taurus) castrated before sexual maturity
(c) buffalo
(d) the offspring of a buffalo and a male bovine
3. caroche
(a) a wild headlong rush or flight of frightened animals
(b) a girl or woman who is a rodeo performer
(c) a contest resembling a rodeo
(d) a luxurious horse-drawn carriage
4. bloodstock
(a) horses of Thoroughbred breeding
(b) a male horse kept for breeding
(c) something used to mask a purpose
(d) a red or white spot between the nostrils of a horse
5. capital of Wyoming
(a) Cody
(b) Cheyenne
(c) Laramie
(d) Casper
6. bobtail
(a) a horse with a bobbed or very short tail
(b) any of a breed of large strong horses of English origin that are uniformly bay with black legs, mane, and tail
(c) a bony enlargement of the hock of a horse associated with strain
(d) a belt passing around the body of a horse to bind a saddle or pack fast to the horse's back
7. mule
(a) one of any of several breeds of very small stocky animals noted for their gentleness and endurance
(b) any of several hardy gregarious African or Asian perissodactyl mammals smaller than the horse and having long ears
(c) the offspring of a male donkey and a mare
(d) the offspring of a stallion and a pony
8. dressage
(a) the execution by a trained horse of precision movements in response to barely perceptible signals from its rider
(b) a roundup
(c) a 3-beat gait resembling but smoother and slower than the gallop
(d) a wool blanket covering the body of a horse
9. bay
(a) horse stable
(b) a horse with a bay-colored body and black mane, tail, and points
(c) rodeo pit
(d) a horse having a body color of any shade of pure or reddish brown with mane, tail, and points of the same or a lighter shade
10. vaquero
(a) outlaw
(b) lawman
(c) scout
(d) cowboy
Correct answers:
1c; 2c; 3d; 4a; 5b; 6a; 7c; 8a; 9b; 10d
Take your place in ProofreadNOW.com’s Wild West Show:
| # Correct | Your Job |
| All 10 | Ringmaster. |
| 7-9 | Rodeo clown. |
| 4-6 |
Ticket seller. |
| 2-3 | Popcorn seller. |
| 0-1 | You're the one following the horses with a shovel and a trash can. |
Intro text courtesy of History.com. Definitions courtesy of Merriam-Webster 11th Collegiate Dictionary.
