THE-:- HORSE 



rider's leg will not be injured unless the horse 

 turns a complete somersault, which is very 

 improbable. A fall of the horse on his left 

 side is probably least dangerous to the rider, 

 as the left leg from heel to knee can be raised 

 more quickly than in the case of the right leg, 

 while the right leg makes its normal swing as 

 in dismounting.. 



The rider, freeing himself from a falling 

 horse, should do so on the side toward which 

 the horse is falling, thus avoiding being kicked 

 by the legs of the probably struggling animal. 



One night, while riding home from Bakers- 

 field to a neighboring ranch, at a walking gait, 

 I fell asleep on my horse. My mount was a 

 notorious runaway, and my dreams were dis- 

 turbed in the following manner: The horse, 

 frightened, I believe, by a chained dog, jumped 

 forward and in a moment was away at the top 

 of his stride. His first jump threw me back- 

 ward over the cantle of the saddle between 

 which and the horse's tail I hung suspended. 

 The reins had been jerked out of my hands. 

 Instinctively I grasped the cantle at the mo- 

 ment of awakening. My situation was not 

 enviable. Pitch blackness all around. The 

 racing hoofbeats in my ears. What to do 

 now was the vital question. To continue in 

 the position I held was but to postpone the 

 inevitable. Barbed wire fences and trees 

 loomed ominously ahead. To crawl forward 



48 



