The Logan family in Hot Springs County, Wyoming, keeping cowboy traditions alive by running a herd of 200 cattle along Owl Creek. Their three children, Paisley, Levi and Rowdy, are being raised in the saddle from a very young age, helping with all the roping and branding.
When 10-year-old Levi Logan was given the chance to pick out his costume for Halloween this year, it was only natural that he wanted a costume that included his horse, Snip.
“I think he was really thinking about how he could hit more houses trick-or-treating,” said his mom, Jill Logan.
She wanted to encourage his creativity so agreed to help him put the costume together.
“We just started thinking about what kind of costumes would go with the horse so he could trick-or-treat with Snip,” she said. “And that's where we came up with the Headless Horseman, a classic costume.”
The Headless Horseman is a character from Washington Irving’s 1820 short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” The specter was believed to be a Hessian solider who was decapitated by a cannonball in battle. Since, he rides a black horse, holding a pumpkin in place of his head.
“I get to hold the pumpkin and put the sword on my side and just have it hang off,” Levi Logan said about making his plans for trick-or-treating with Snip. “I’ve just been thinking that maybe people can just come down with the candy, and I can just kind of lean off him and grab the candy and then put it in something.”
The Wyoming Halloween Horse
To make the costume complete, the brown-colored horse was spayed black with special paint made for showing cattle, except for the white snip of color on his nose.
“I did not spray paint him because I was in school and the bus was coming,” Logan said. “He was tied up to the trailer because my mom and her friend, Kamryn Farrell painted him. Then she put black duct tape on the boots and put tape on the bridle.”
To test out the costume, Logan went to Moonlight Madness downtown Thermopolis last Thursday. He and Snip were dressed up, but the horse wasn’t so sure about all the festivities.
“He did not like all the costumes that much, but he was pretty good,” Logan said.
The pair won their category for best costume, but Logan was more focused on the night ahead. Halloween was looming and he needed a plan for Snip’s first-time trick-or-treating.
“We are gonna go early because he would probably spook at all the costumes at night,” Logan said.
Snip was chosen as the lucky horse to go trick-or-treating because he is the most gentle of the Logan horses.
“Snip is one that we raised,” Jill Logan said. “He's always been kind of an old soul as a horse, he's just really mature. Levi uses Snip for pretty much everything and was probably three or four, when he was riding Snip by himself.”
Snip's costume as the Headless Horseman's black steed was created with a can of spray paint from the livestock store. This safe paint is usually used on show cows. (Courtesy Jill Logan) 
Levi Logan and Snip gather cattle on the Owl Creeks in Hot Springs County, Wyoming (Courtesy Jill Logan)
Keeping The Cowboy Traditions Alive
Once Halloween is over, Snip will return to the ranch to continue working cows.
“We herd cows and wean the calves,” Levi said. “Cowboys doctor the calves and cows, and sometimes they cut off the horns of the cows.”
Horses will continue to be a major part of Levi’s life, and his mother said it is about keeping tradition alive as well. She was raised on a ranch herself and wants the same life for her kids, especially riding horses.
“It’s a skill and it's hard, I think, to keep it going when it's a lot easier to just jump in a side by side or jump in an ATV,” she said. “But we're pretty traditional in our family.
“When Levi was little, I packed him everywhere with me, on the front of me, and then as soon as they could sit in a saddle, they were going. I remember when Levi about 3 or 4 and had a pretty exciting day riding because we saw a couple bears up on the mountain and had some really wild cattle.”
As Levi prepares to take his horse trick-or-treating this Halloween, he is also celebrating the Wyoming tradition of being a real cowboy.
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
