RIDING THE RIM ROCK 



99 



Bred on the desert, broken in at the round-up, 

 trained to think steer as the rider thinks it, the horse 

 " knew, as swiftly, as clearly as his rider, the work be- 

 fore him. But that he kept himself from fright, that 

 none of the wild herd-madness passed into him, is a 

 thing for great wonder. He was as thirsty as any of 

 the herd ; he knew his own peril, I believe, as none 

 of the herd had ever known anything, and yet such 

 'coolness, courage, wisdom, and power! 



Was it training ? Superior intelligence ? More in- 

 timate association with the man on his back, and so 

 a farther remove from the wild thing that domesti- 

 cation does not seem to touch ? Or was it all by sug- 

 gestion, the superior intelligence above him riding, 

 not only the flesh, but the spirit? 



Not all suggestion, I believe. Perhaps a herd of 

 horses could not be stampeded so easily as these P 

 Ranch cattle. In this race, however, nothing of the 

 wild herd-spirit touched the horse. Had the cattle 

 been horses, would Peroxide Jim have been able to 

 keep himself outside the stampede and above the 

 spirit of the herd? 



y 

 NT. 



#FV 



