32 RANCH LIFE AND THE HUNTING-TRAIL 



them, for he follows a most dangerous trade, at which no man can hope to 

 grow old ; his work being infinitely harder than that of an Eastern horse- 

 breaker or rough-rider, because he has to do it in such a limited time. A 

 good rider is a good rider all the world over ; but an Eastern or English 

 horse-breaker and Western bronco-buster have so little in common with 

 each other as regards style or surroundings, and are so totally out of 

 place in doing each other's work, that it is almost impossible to get either 

 to admit that the other has any merits at all as a horseman, for neither 

 could sit in the saddle of the other or could without great difficulty per- 

 form his task. The ordinary Eastern seat, which approaches more or less 



A DEEP FORD. 



the seat of a cross-country rider or fox-hunter, is nearly as different from 

 the cowboy's seat as from that of a man who rides bareback. The stir- 

 rups on a stock saddle are much farther back than they are on an 

 ordinary English one (a difference far more important than the high horn 

 and cantle of the former), and the man stands nearly erect in them, 

 instead of having his legs bent ; and he grips with the thighs and not with 

 the knees, throwing his feet well out. Some of the things he teaches his 

 horse would be wholly useless to an Eastern equestrian : for example, one 

 of the first lessons the newly-caught animal has to learn is not to "run on 



