32 



it may be added, are deterred by supersti- 

 tion from risking death by night ; hence an 

 additional good reason for the express rider's 

 choice of time to travel. For six months 

 the pony carried him between ninety and 

 a hundred miles on three consecutive nights 

 in each week ; he went one week and re- 

 turned the next in the same way. And 

 Colonel Dodge adds that this tax upon his 

 powers " had not diminished the fire and 

 flesh of that pony." 



Writing of the breed in another work, 

 The Hunting Grounds of the Great West, 

 Colonel Dodge observes that civilisation 

 spoils this pony ; accustomed on the ranche 

 and prairie to pick up his own living when 

 turned out after a long day's work in 

 summer, and used to semi-starvation in 

 winter, when stabled, shod, and fed on corn, 

 his character undergoes a change. He 

 either becomes morose, ill-tempered, hard 

 to manage and dangerous, or he degenerates 

 into a fat, lazy, short-winded cob, "only fit 

 for a baby or an octogenarian." The latter 

 change is the more usual. We can well 

 understand that such would be the result. 



Colonel Dodge has no doubt but that the 

 Indian pony is identical with the Texan 

 mustang or wild horse, concerning whose 



