XXII 



As a rough-rider the cowboy is facile princeps ; as a 

 horse-breaker he devotes too little time to his task, nor 

 does he go to work in the way best calculated to produce 

 a quiet nag. Bronco-busting is a distinct art. The bron- 

 co-buster may be a "professional," who has originally 

 taken up the work to replenish his exchequer, depleted 

 by whiskey or poker, and sticks to it for lack of an easier 

 job, and because he is at low- water-mark; or he may be a 

 cow-puncher in slack times. As a rule he cannot stick it 

 out very long, for the business is sure to end by busting 

 the buster. It is unquestionably the most violent form 

 of athletics, and the bronco - buster, though he must be 

 strong and active, is not, as a rule, in the exceptional con- 

 dition necessary for great feats of strength and endur- 

 ance. Indeed, training would scarcely help him much. 

 Whatever his strength and health, the bronco - buster is 

 sure to get hurt sooner or later. He works it off and on 

 at ten dollars a bronco. All cowboys do more or less 

 breaking, and some ranches always break their own ponies, 

 and generally have better ones for so doing, because they 

 give each pony more time. 



The typical bronco-buster should weigh a hundred and 

 seventy or a hundred and eighty pounds. Weight does 

 the business when a light man can accomplish noth- 

 ing, though one of the most successful bronco - riders of 

 whom I ever heard was a long -geared, lank Texas lad, 

 who would stick to his horse till his head would snap 



