TAMING HORSES. 19 



tioned horse. He was going on eight years old, 

 had always run in the prairie since he had been 

 branded, was a stud of a most fiery, ferocious dis- 

 position, and had never been roped from the time 

 he had been branded. To get him into the yard 

 where I gentled him, we were obliged to tie his legs 

 and drag him in, and no one durst go into the yard 

 where he was let loose. He ran at any one, when 

 confined in the yard, with as much fury as a lion 

 or tiger would have done, and he used his teeth 

 and fore feet with as much dexterity as if he had 

 been trained up to it from a colt. After I led him 

 out, I let the saddle fall over his heels, girted him 

 tight and cruppered him. Several boys got upon 

 him, rode him about the yard, tied a dry ox-hide 

 to his tail, and rode him out in this manner into 

 the prairie, without his showing the least sign of 

 fear, eithej' at the rattling of the hide, or at any 

 other object he met with in the prairie. The next 

 day, they rode him to the town, in the midst of a 

 great concourse of people; for it was a holiday. 

 He passed among them with as little fear as if he 

 had been raised in the town. "When he came home, 

 he followed any one without pulling him by the 

 halter. He let any one handle his feet, and take 

 them up with as much ease as they could those of 

 any plough horse. I declare that, in thus gentling 

 this animal, I made use of no intoxicating bever- 



