ONE DAY RIDES 203 



mounts, the three thousand six hundred miles 

 took two hundred days. This works out at 

 the very poor average of eighteen miles a day 

 But for delays in buying horses the average 

 would have been twenty-one miles, and I 

 doubt if any horse outside of fairy tales can 

 do much more on a six thousand mile journey. 



Apart from the vagueness and doubtfulness 

 of the stories, the standard which they set up 

 for comparison seems to be very low as com- 

 pared with the annals of range horsemanship. 

 The following records were made for the most 

 part with half or three-quarter bred range 

 raised horses, and all with weight-distributing 

 saddles. 



One Day Rides. A friend of mine, 

 an Australian stockman, v/ith a weight- 

 distributing saddle, and leading a pack 

 animal, crossed the state of Victoria from the 

 Murray to Melbourne, one hundred and forty- 

 three miles by the route taken, covered in 

 twenty-six hours. 



A constable of the Royal North-West 

 Mounted Police of Canada with a forty-two 

 pound stock-saddle on a buckskin gelding, 

 rode from Regina to Wood Mountain Post, one 

 hundred and thirty-two miles by sunlight, and 

 the horse bucked him oif at the finish. 



