Many times I saw Tom when he first got on a horse, especially a colt, he might just sit there on the colt before riding off, not always just at times.
At the end of the day he might sit and visit with someone before dismounting. I often heard him say? “It all depends.”
On a cattle drive during the lunch break, most of the riders would dismount, hobble their horses or tie to a tree, etc. Most always Tom would stay on his horse. He always carried water and most times his lunch. He ate his lunch while on the horse, and sometimes took a nap till it was time to move on.
A person might think Tom was doing nothing but I believe Tom had a purpose and was doing some training , maybe helping the horse to learn to wait, relax and be comfortable. One of Tom’s comments was, “waiting doesn’t mean doing nothing.”