1833.] HORSEMANSHIP IN CHILE. m 



useless, it is far otherwise. It is only carrying that which is daily 

 necessary into perfection. When a bullock is checked and caught by 

 the lazo, it will sometimes gallop round and round in a circle, and the 

 horse being alarmed at the great strain, if not well broken, will not 

 readily turn like the pivot of a wheel. In consequence many men have 

 been killed ; for if the lazo once takes a twist round a man's body, it 

 will instantly, from the power of the two opposed animals, almost cut 

 him in twain. On the same principle the races are managed ; the course 

 is only two or three hundred yards long, the wish being to have horses 

 that can make a rapid dash. The race-horses are trained not only to 

 stand with their hoofs touching a line, but to draw all four feet together, 

 so as at the first spring to bring into play the full action of the hind- 

 quarters. In Chile I was told an anecdote, which I believe was true ; 

 and it offers a good illustration of the use of a well-broken animal. A 

 respectable man riding one day met two others, one of whom was 

 mounted on a horse, which he knew to have been stolen from himself. 

 He challenged them ; they answered him by drawing their sabres and 

 giving chase. The man, on his good and fleet beast, kept just ahead : 

 as he passed a thick bush he wheeled round it, and brought up his 

 horse to a dead check. The pursuers were obliged to shoot on one 

 side and ahead. Then instantly dashing on, right behind them, he 

 buried his knife in the back of one, wounded the other, recovered 

 his horse from the dying robber, and rode home. For these feats of 

 horsemanship two things are necessary: a most severe bit, like the 

 Mameluke, the power of which, though seldom used, the horse knows 

 full well ; and large blunt spurs, that can be applied either as a mere 

 touch, or as an instrument of extreme pain. I conceive that with 

 English spurs, the slightest touch of which pricks the skin, it would be 

 impossible to break in a horse after the South American fashion. 



At an estancia near Las Vacas large numbers of mares are weekly 

 slaughtered for the sake of their hides, although worth only five paper 

 dollars, or about half a crown apiece. It seems at first strange that it 

 can answer to kill mares for such a trifle ; but as it is thought ridiculous 

 in this country ever to break in or ride a mare, they are of no value 

 except for breeding. The only thing for which I ever saw mares used 

 was to tread out wheat from the ear ; for which purpose they were 

 driven round a circular enclosure, where the wheat-sheaves were 

 strewed. The man employed for slaughtering the mares happened to 

 be celebrated for his dexterity with the lazo. Standing at the distance 

 of twelve yards from the mouth of the corral, he has laid a wager that 

 he would catch by the legs every animal, without missing one, as it 

 rushed past him. There was another man who said he would enter 

 the corral on foot, catch a mare, fasten her front legs together, drive her 

 out, throw her do\vn, kill, skin, and stake the hide for dyeing (which 

 latter is a tedious job) ; and he engaged that he would perform this 

 whole operation on twenty-two animals in one day. Or he would kill 

 and take the skin off fifty in the same time. This would have been a 

 prodigious task, for it is considered a good day's work to skin and stake 

 the hides of fifteen or sixteen animals. 



