PAD RIDING 39 



gets fed during the severe season, for his master is not 

 quite so improvident as the red man ; and he does not get 

 so gaunt and miserable as his transatlantic cousin. But, 

 like the bronco, it takes but a week or so of grass to scour 

 him out into a coat as sleek as that of a race-track favorite. 



The Indian trapper rode a pad which was not unlike 

 an air-cushion, cinched in place and provided with a pair 

 of very short stirrups hung exactly from the middle. This 

 drag'o:ed his heels to the rear, in the fashion of the old- 

 time Sioux, and gave him a very awkward look. By just 

 what process, from a bareback seat, the fellow managed 

 to drift into this one, which is quite peculiar to himself, 

 it is hard to guess. Habits change by slow degrees, and 

 each step is wont to bring a new condition somewhat re- 

 sembling its predecessor. Here we have a seat which has 

 wandered as far from the bareback as one can ^vell imag- 

 ine, and this in a comparatively short period. Among 

 civilized peoples a novel invention may often immediately 

 change a given method of doing a thing ; among savages 

 changes are very gradual ; among semi-civilized peoples 

 change is so slow that one may almost say that it never 

 occurs. 



Unlike the old-time Sioux, the Indian trapper would 

 sit all over his horse, weaving from side to side, and shift- 

 ing his pad at every movement. His pony's back was 

 always sore. His pad-lining soon got hard with sweat 

 and galled the skin, and the last thing which w^ould ever 

 occur to him would be to take steps to relieve his patient 

 comrade's suffering. He never attempted to change his 

 pad-lining or cinch the pad more carefully. On went the 

 pad, up jumped the trapper ; and why shouldn't the pony 

 buck, as he invariably did ? Sore backs are as much at 

 the root of the bucking habit as the utterly insufficient 

 breaking of the pony. 



