A Wyoming dough boy and his horse

The bucking horse design was merely an idea when Ostrom reported to headquarters to submit his emblem design for the 148th field artillery. The order had come for every unit to create an insignia, setting off a flurry of design drawing and contests, Goss said. Ostrom had no paper, but he looked around the dugout until he spotted the regimental drum. He asked permission and freehanded his idea.

The emblem was Ostrom’s beloved horse Redwing, which Ostram insisted on taking overseas with other U.S. Army remounts. Ostrom moved from Spencer, Iowa, to Wyoming with his family in 1913 and homesteaded east of Sheridan, according the Nicolaysen’s gallery guide.

“His horse was deemed a little too small, but it was a spirited and it was a good horse,” Goss said. “So he got an officer to take his horse over there.”

Many of his fellow Wyoming National Guard soldiers served in the unit, and his design was a hit with them as well as with other soldiers from western states.

“They loved it instantly, and it instantly became the insignia for the 148th Field Artillery,” Goss said.