170 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



carriage make an excellent team for long journeys. 

 In the early days of California, the fast stage-coaches, 

 famous for tearing down mountain roads and skirting 

 the edges of a precipice, were horsed chiefly, if not en- 

 tirely, by broncos. But the endurance of this animal 

 as a roadster has been exaggerated. The truth is that 

 broncos are ridden and driven great distances in a day, 

 not so much because they can accomplish the task 

 with impunity, as because they are cheap, and their 

 owners are cruel. If a bronco is ruined by a long 

 drive, it is easy to replace him. 



Broncos are commonly intelligent, but they are also 

 apt to be vicious. In fact, the breaking which they 

 undergo, and which has been practised upon many 

 generations of their ancestors, could hardly fail to 

 leave them otherwise than vicious. " Buffalo Bill ' 

 has made the buck-jumping of a bronco familiar to 

 the people of two continents. Nor is it easy to make 

 them go safely in harness. A neighbor of mine once 

 hitched to a light road-cart a pony that had been rid- 

 den for some years. He took many precautions in 

 the way of straps and ropes, so that kicking was ren- 

 dered impossible. Finally, when all was ready, he 

 mounted the cart and drove qui#;ly out of the yard. 

 I watched him as far down the road as I could see, 

 and no old horse could have gone more steadily or 

 better than this bronco. But, as it soon appeared, 

 he was only biding his opportunity. When he came 

 to a bridge over a river, which he had often crossed 

 before, the pony without the least warning, jumped 

 the rail, taking man and cart along with him, and 

 dropped the whole establishment in the flood. It was 

 in the spring, and ice was running, but with some 



