In one of his short stories Russell wrote of that most prized possession of the Plains Indian hunter, his buffalo horse. Here he illustrates his point and also his fluency in painting the subject. The snow-patched landscape, the receding flow of the chase, the frosty bite of the air, and the action—especially the aggressive charge of the cow and the frantic leap of the horse—are all expertly portrayed. Russell’s own experience in a buffalo roundup in 1909 exposed him to the wild side of the buffalo and stimulated his artistry expressed in this dramatic painting of a wounded cow defending its calf. (There is also a treat tucked into the foreground‚ a rabbit hunkered down in the grass, a touch Russell often added to delight his alert viewers.)