A CLOTHES-PIN RIDER 137 



creature's family and beat him handily, has developed 

 from the same blood far other lines than these ; or, indeed, 

 that the meanest runt of a plains pony, on a ride of one 

 hundred miles across the Bad Lands, would leave the 

 beautiful animal dead in his tracks full twoscore miles 

 behind ! 



There is one point in which our steed is not Moorish 

 and it was the Moorish horse, or Barb, which came across 

 with the Spaniards. This is the croup and tail. The 

 Barb carries a poor tail ; it is the Arabian whose tail is so 

 high-set. And in Spain, too, the tail is, as a rule, low-car- 

 ried, showing its evident origin. You must cross the Lib- 

 yan desert to the east before you get the best tail. And 

 in Mexico one does not often see as perfect a croup as the 

 saddle-beast depicted. He may have been imported from 

 the Orient. 



The Mexican swell rides on a saddle worth a fortune. 

 It is loaded with silver trimmings, and hanging over it is 

 an expensive xerapa, or Spanish blanket, which adds to 

 the magnificence of the whole. His queer-shaped stirrups 

 are redolent of the old mines. His bridle is in like man- 

 ner adorned with metal in the shape of half a dozen big 

 silver plates, and to his bit is attached a pair of knotted 

 red-cord reins, which he holds high up and loose. He is 

 dressed in a black velvet jacket, fringed and embroidered 

 with silver ; and a large and expensive sombrero, perched 

 on his head, is tilted over one ear. His legs are incased 

 in dark tight-fitting breeches, with silver button and chain 

 trimming down the side seams, but cut so as, in summer 

 weather, to unbutton from knee to foot and flap aside. 

 His spurs are silver, big and heavy and costly, and fitted 

 to buckle round his high -cut heel. Under his left leg is 

 fastened a broad-bladed and beautiful curved sword, with 

 a hilt worthy an hidalgo. 



