106 MOUNTING A BRONCO 



studied economy that makes him spend so much on these 

 two articles of attire. And so long as they are orna- 

 mental as well as useful, he is as well satisfied with them 

 as a New York swell used to be with a cover-coat with 

 long swallow-tails sticking out from under it. 



Broncos with manners are fewer and farther between 

 than even angels' visits. The cowboy's bronco is never 

 what we should call half- broken. By the time he has 

 been ridden enough to be well broken in he is usually all 

 broken up. lie is a difficult fellow to mount, being rid- 

 den but once every four or five days. If he were not so 

 small one could never mount him without assistance. He 

 will back away, plunge forward, swerve, kick, strike, 

 squeal, rush full at. 3'ou with mouth wide open, or per- 

 form a hundred other antics, any one of which would 

 compel us simple-minded park riders to hurry him off to 

 the nearest auction -room — or atlvertise him at private 

 sale as a horse of exceptional courage and unflagging 

 spirit. He is, in every sense, what we are wont to char- 

 acterize as a dangerous brute. But the cowboy can al- 

 ways see him and go him one better. Familiarity breeds 

 contempt. For what he calls violence he ropes the 

 bronco and chokes the violence out of him with the wind ; 

 to what we call violence he ])ays no manner of heed. 

 He approaches him at the left shoulder, with a wary eye 

 to what the pony may be up to, and gathers the rein in 

 his left hand. Not infrequently he puts his hand over 

 the pony's eye while he grabs the left stirrup and gets his 

 foot in it, following up the bronco's antics as best he may 

 — man and horse not unlikely executing a most exhilarat- 

 ing 2)a8 de deux. Then, grabbing the pommel with the 

 right hand and the pony's withers with the left, and if 

 ])ossi]>]e getting his left elbow in the hollow of the neck 

 just forward of the withers, nothing which the ]K)iiy can 



