Frank Kurihara (1916-2012), a Robinson Ranch paniolo, once recalled working alongside the Robinson brothers – Sinclair, Aylmer, Selwyn, and Lester Robinson.
He remembered the day that Lester was roping a bull, and when Lester’s horse slipped and fell, Lester found himself stuck in his saddle on the ground, unable to move, with one leg pinned under the horse.
Kurihara and his fellow paniolos then jumped off their horses to assist him, but Lester’s brothers stopped them.
Insisting on seeing their brother free himself, they merely sat in their saddles and ordered him to “Get off your horse, Lester!” And he did.
Lean and tough, the Robinsons and their paniolos were inured to physical hardship.
There were days when, in order to conserve water, Kurihara and the other paniolos, including Lester Robinson, would drink nothing while working from before sun up until after sundown.
Another old-time paniolo was a Spaniard named Miguel, who arrived on Kauai around 1839.
Miguel fashioned the first Kauai saddle, introduced the art of making ropes out of horsehair and rawhide, and employed a bola – a rope weighted with wooden balls on one end.
Instead of lassoing cattle, he would hurl his bola so that it entangled the legs of cattle, temporarily hobbling them.
Still, another Kauai paniolo was Koolau (1862-1896), who contracted Hansen’s Disease (leprosy) and became infamous for hiding in Kalalau Valley with his family to escape deportation to Molokai and killing Sheriff Louis Stolz when Stolz attempted to arrest him.
Born at Huleia, John Solomon Malina (1885-1940) was for many years the head cowboy at Kipu Ranch and was renowned throughout Hawaii as a great polo player.
His father, John Malina (1823?-unknown), was a Filipino musician who had settled on Kauai in the 1860s, married Keokilele Halemanu Punana Ukeke (1829-1919), and worked for Kipu Ranch owner William Hyde Rice.
John Solomon Malina’s son, paniolo John “Pili” Solomon Malina (1906-1968), rode a horse every day and also excelled at polo.
Born at Waimea, the son of Masazo and Kaliko Aukai Naumu Taniguchi, paniolo Hulu Taniguchi (1897-1933) was outstanding among Kauai’s mountain guides, as was his son Eddie Taniguchi, Sr. (1919-1984).
