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The Texas longhorn is a breed of cattle known for its characteristic horns, which can extend to six feet in width and have a slight upward turn at their tips, as well as for their distinctive burnt orange coloring. The Longhorns is also the nickname of the sports teams of The University of Texas at Austin and the school mascot is a longhorn named Bevo. The Texas Longhorn Breeders Association of America serves as the recognized registry for the breed, which can often fetch up to $60,000 at auction.

History of the breed:
Though some historians disagree, the Texas longhorn is generally thought to have been created as a cross between the Spanish retinto (criollo) stock left in the United States by Spanish explorers and English cattle brought to Texas from southern and midwestern states in the 1820s and 1830s.

The breed began to gain popularity in the late 1870s, when buffalo herds were slaughtered and ranging tribes of Plains Indians largely confined. As a result, ranches were set up to round up the feral cattle to be sold at market and new ranches began spread northward to the open range of the Noth American Great Plains. Texas longhorns, whose long legs and hard hoofs made them ideal trail cattle, were the preferred breed to stock these new northern ranches, initiating the cattle drives of cowboy legend. Cattle drives in this era (before railroads began to take over much of the transport of cattle) moved an estimated 9 million Texas longhorn cattle up the Chisholm Trail and others to shipping points created by Joseph G. McCoy after the American Civil War.

NOTE: I use Nik color Efex Pro 2.0 blue grad, adding color the washed-out, overcast sky.

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