Slim Dusty The Battle With the Roan song lyrics

I come ridin' down the Barwon with my saddle and my swag

Strapped across the bony framework of a long backed chestnut nag

I was headin' for a station on the stockroute west of Bourke

To tangle with an outlaw horse well known in campfire talk

When I rode down to the stockyard where they said I'd find the boss

Standing just inside I saw the big roan outlaw horse

He was just the kind of horseflesh a ringer dreams about

Game eye and good strong shoulders and front legs well spaced out

I said now boss is that the horse the ringers rave about

I've heard of him at Camooweal and even further out

Yes he's been tried by desert men and riders from the gulf

He said I'd give my station to the man that calls his bluff

And as I strapped the bridle on that proud and shapely head

I pictured me as owner of his big merino spread

I threw my Snyder poley on and tightened up the girth

And as I stepped astride him the big horse left this earth

He left the ground in one tight ball as solid as a stone

And all that I could see around was one big blur of roan

I hit him with my goosenecks around the shoulder points

He twisted like a reptile that had a million joints

He dropped his shoulders way down low and chopped out to the right

He started striking at the bit each time the spurs did bite

I thought I felt him weaken so I voiced a victory yell

What happened then I only know for those who saw it tell

So I rode way from the station with my saddle and my swag

Strapped across the bony framework of the same old chestnut nag

And just as I was leaving he whinnied loud and shrill

And even after all these years I fancy I hear him still

They still tell yarns about him around the campfire blaze

Of the noted riders that he's thrown so many different ways

And while I'm taking night watch on a cattle camp alone

I try to figure how I lost the battle with the roan.