ride herd

Think “cowboy,” and you might picture John Wayne riding herd across the U.S.

In the meantime, the King family has ridden herd on numerous usages of their forebear’s speeches and writings.

So she better figure out quickly how to tamp down the chaos, ride herd and get things done.

He rode herd on the musicological and critical communities, sending unsolicited — indeed, dreaded — postcards to colleagues with capsule critiques, noting errors or inanities, often scathingly.

“While we have a contract, we are always going to be riding herd with them to make sure they are doing what we expect them to do.”