58 THE GRAZING RULES 



The taste for green pasture is so far for- 

 gotten that range horses will swim rivers and 

 break fences to escape from the richest of 

 meadows and get to the desert hillsides which 

 seem to grow nothing but stones. Where 

 sheep tear the bunch grass out by the roots and 

 leave stark desert, the horses' lips and teeth 

 are so dehcately adapted to this feeding that 

 they never uproot the plant. 



It is a sound rule that range ponies do not 

 travel beyond their necessities of grass and 

 water. Leaving the water, they graze out- 

 wards, forming a trampled area which widens 

 daily as they feed at the edges. So, riding 

 across the rich and untouched grass lands of 

 the south-western deserts, I have come to a 

 line w^here the pasturage ended abruptly, and 

 beyond were innumerable pony tracks leading 

 from six to ten miles to a water hole. The 

 wild horse looked upon that ring area as the 

 tame horse does a stable, with water and feed 

 conveniently arranged. That was his home, 

 and if man or the storm, or wolves drove him a 

 couple of hundred miles away to better feed 

 and water, he would always break back at the 

 first chance, travelling steadily with little delay 

 for grazing. 



A horse's neck is exactly long enough for 



