Comments on: Saddled Pigs, part 1 https://www.porkopolis.org/2011/saddled-pigs-part-1/ Considering the pig, a single-minded bestiary. Mon, 27 Oct 2025 22:27:57 +0000 hourly 1 By: Dano https://www.porkopolis.org/2011/saddled-pigs-part-1/#comment-42539 Mon, 27 Oct 2025 22:27:57 +0000 http://localhost/porko-x1/?p=5911#comment-42539 In reply to William Martin.

Ho, William,
Your Dad was pig cowboy and very brave! Thank you for visiting Porkopolis and for sharing this story. Root on, Dan

]]> By: William Martin https://www.porkopolis.org/2011/saddled-pigs-part-1/#comment-42500 Sun, 26 Oct 2025 11:50:32 +0000 http://localhost/porko-x1/?p=5911#comment-42500 My late father grew up in the late twenties, early thirties, ie, During the Great Depression. Luckily they lived on a farm, and one of his pastimes was to jump from atop the small hog house onto a hogs back, then ride it about. The hogs were not fond of this in the least, so they’d run back into the hog house, and dad would jump onto its top, run to the far end, then back onto the quite desperate hogs back for more riding.

]]> By: Dan https://www.porkopolis.org/2011/saddled-pigs-part-1/#comment-66 Fri, 06 May 2011 15:22:17 +0000 http://localhost/porko-x1/?p=5911#comment-66 In reply to Mark Essig.

Thanks, Mark! Your references are new to me and I appreciate you sending them. The subject of saddled pigs &/or riding pigs might turn out to be worth several future posts. I have found a wealth of information beyond what I have included here.

]]> By: Mark Essig https://www.porkopolis.org/2011/saddled-pigs-part-1/#comment-65 Fri, 06 May 2011 14:47:24 +0000 http://localhost/porko-x1/?p=5911#comment-65 Great post. I thought you might be interested in a couple of related references I’ve run across:

The great geologist Charles Lyell, on a visit to Cincinnati in 1842, made the following observation:
“As to the free hogs before mentioned, which roam about the handsome streets, they belong to no one in particular, and any citizen is at liberty to take them up, fatten, and kill them. … It is a favorite amusement of the boys to ride upon the pigs, and we were shown one sagacious old hog, who was in the habit of lying down as soon as a boy came in sight.” (Travels in North America, 1856, vol. 2, p. 61)

Earlier, in 1819, New York City had passed an ordinance against hogs roaming free on city streets. At the trial of one man accused of violating the ordinance, the district attorney produced a number of arguments against allowing free-range pigs, including that “boys got into trouble by riding hogs.” (Hendrik Hartog, “Pigs and Positivism,” Wisconsin Law Review 899 (1985), 905-6)

Though the record is silent on the matter, I would assume that these boys in Cincinnati and New York did not saddle the hogs before mounting.

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