There is a movie with that plot titled "Death Rides A Horse" with Lee Van Cleef. It came out in the late 60s...a classic "spaghetti western." I'm not certain if this is your movie or if yours was a remake. Here is the Wiki page. Here is a link to the movie on YouTube. If you go to Amazon you can get the flick on DVD for $15, or you can get it as a double feature for $9. This assumes it's what you're recalling. So many "death," horse," "rider" and "pale" flicks out there. You can thank The Book of Revelation for that. . As an aside, when Cleef was breaking in to the industry, an agent told him to get his nose fixed...that he would never get an acting role as long as his schnoz looked that way. Must have been the same guy who told Fred Astaire he could neither sing nor dance worth a lick.
They may not represent the real thing, but nothing does in Hollywood. Even so far as they do, what we think of as the Wild West was a very small segment of history. I enjoy watching Westerns from the 50s and 60s. Although there is not a lot of depth to the characters or plots, they are nevertheless entertaining. Then, there was a lull in Westerns and, in the 90s, I think, the few Westerns that were produced showed a greater degree of depth. The characters had personalities beyond wearing either a white hat or a black hat, and I liked them even more. However, Westerns that are produced now are way too dark for me. Not only do most of the scenes take place at night, but everyone and everything is evil, and again, no one has any true personalities; rather, they are evil for no apparent reason, and the most evil among a cast of evil people have nearly superhuman powers. I'd rather have the 50s Westerns. At least I could see what was going on.
Not too long ago "GRIT TV" was added to the antenna tv offerings. Lots of old western tv shows and tons of movies. I've watched the 1993 movie "Tombstone" a few times (is it really a 30 year old flick???) I like Val Kilner's rendition of Doc Holliday. But I doubt that it was historically accurate. "Open Range" (Robert Duvall and Kevin Costner) struck me as pretty realistic. The gun battles are not the "one-shot-and-you're-instantly-dead" versions. And there were lots shots that missed their targets.
“McCabe and Mrs. Miller” is what I imagine an authentic western to be but I really have no clue. It was a different, and memorable, kind of film and I’d recommend it if you haven’t seen it.
We've watched the modern day western Longmire, I can't believe it was based on today's reality, But it was extremely enjoyable. I watch shows to be Entertained, so if it deviates from reality so be it. If westerns were based on the everyday life of a real cowboy, it just might Not be Entertaining enough for viewers, So Hollywood writers use their artistic license to stretch the truth, That's why it's called fiction.
Watched a western movie, which was on either GRIT or MeTV, called White Feather. It's a 1955 movie starring a very young Robert Wagner and Debra Paget. Wikipedia states that the movie is partly true. It's about the end of the Indian Wars, when the Cheyenne tribe Chief signed a Peace Treaty with the commander of Fort Laramie in Wyoming.