Longhorns and Mustangs

What I already knew was that "Longhorn[s]... connote courage, fighting ability, nerve, lust"(157) and many more defined heroic traits that roots and feed us Texas Longhorns with the burnt orange pride, but what I didn't know is the fact that there is a nine foot tall "Longhorn statue...located on the Heman Sweatt Campus"(156). At first when I read about this while reading "The Longhorns" in The Anthology, I wasn't so surprised at the height because to me, a longhorn that is "about nine feet tall, [with]... a seven-foot horn span, and measur[ing] 10 1/2 feet from nose to tail" didn't seem much of an accomplishment (156). I was quick to draw conclusions, but when I actually retracted my thoughts to digest what I had previously read about the statue... that it was a "2,800-pound bronze statue... [that] was a gift from three UT student groups," I took few more moments to rethink and spit out a new opinion about the statue (156). It was 2,800 pounds! That's more than a ton. What matters is how much effort that was put into the gifts given to you. That's what I was taught as I was growing up by both my friends and family. As I thought more and more in depth, I realize that UT student groups are students like us. They don't just magically have money that grow on trees to infinitely supply them. They have to work for it through fundraising, which is exactly what they did. "Members of the organizations sold 12-inch-high replicas of the Longhorn at $2,000 each to pay for the $90,000 statue" (156). Once I read this, my past opinions were basically shattered into a million pieces and rebuilt to acknowledge such courtesy and such dedication. To me, $90,000 is a plethora amount of money. Heck, that's more than both my parents salaries combined! I personally give the three UT student groups that helped make this possible: the Wranglers, the Silver Spurs, and The Phi Eta Sigma my highest respect for such dedication and hard work.

From what I learned from further reading of The Anthology was that Mustangs "Carried The Men Who Made Texas "(182). It was because of the mustangs that gave the conquests to the Spanish explorers. As I read on, one quote seemed to stand out to me the most. It said that "a man was no better than his horse, and a man on foot was no man at all" (182). This especially stood out to me because this is true. Man can only travel as far and as fast as his own physically endurance and legs could carry him. The Spanish explorers had to go across two continents. Without these mustangs, I believe that these Spanish explorers wouldn't have made such a conquest to establish what is now Texas over Mexico. These explorers would have possibly been wiped out just from traveling across such vast areas of land. In my personal opinion, if it weren't for the mustangs, Texas wouldn't be Texas today as we see it now. 

Citations:

Longhorn Statue: http://pumpkinandpomegranate.com/2010/texas-photo-montage-with-some-food/

Mustang Horse: http://secure.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=6883882719

The Anthology