AGllICULTUEE. 227 



Tlie horse learns to watch the reata ; if it catches, he slackens 

 his pace, or stops suddenly ; if it does not catch, he continues 

 at full speed, while the vaquero pulls up the reata and prepares 

 to throw it again. Tlie saddle and bridle are both peculiar, 

 and necessary to the trade of the vaquero. The saddle-tree, or 

 fuste^ is made of four pieces of wood, two of which are longi- 

 tudinal and rest on the sides of the horse : one forms a hio-h 

 back ; aud the fourth is a fork, which rises in a laro^e strongr 

 horn. The pieces are strongly fastened together, and the 

 whole framework is covered with wet rawhide, which shrinks 

 when dry, and contributes much to its strength. A good fuste 

 is stout enough to hold the strongest bull. The girth is four 

 inches wide, and is made of a number of little ropes of horse- 

 hair, connecting two iron rings four inches in diameter. One 

 of these rings is fastened on the right side of the saddle, by 

 straps running over the front and back of the fuste ; and a 

 similar rino- is fastened in like manner on the left side of the 

 fuste. In this latter ring is a rawhide strap three feet long. 

 When the saddle is to be fastened, this stra^^ runs through the 

 ring at the loose end of the girth, then through the upper ring, 

 then down to the girth ring again ; and the vaquero pulls, and 

 usually draws so tightly that the wide girth cuts into the 

 horse's belly and evidently displaces its contents. When a 

 vaquero is preparing for a day of lassoing, there is no danger 

 that the saddle will slip. The girth has no buckle ab'^ut it, 

 and is made wide to give it strength and to prevent it from 

 hurting the horse. It is placed farther back than in American 

 saddles, and rarely cuts the skin, just behind the fore-legs. 

 Sometimes in lassoing, the animal caught will get oif sideways 

 from the horse, and the saddle must be so firmly in its place, 

 that it cannot move ; and sometimes the vaquero will drop his 

 reata after having caught his cow or horse, and then while his 

 horse is going at full speed he must reach down, supporting 

 himself with one hand on the horn of the saddle and with the 

 other seize the reata. For such feats, the girth must not be 

 loose. The stirrups are of vrood, about three inches wide, and 



