52 TAMING HORSES. 



never employed more than ten hours but with one, 

 "which belonged to the Governor of San Louis Po- 

 tosi, Don Jose Ildefonso Leon. This animal kept 

 me between fifteen and sixteen hours, in gentling 

 him ; at the end of which time, men, women and 

 children could ride him and handle him with as 

 much ease as they could any old, gentle cart-horse, 

 and ride him bare-backed through the streets of 

 the city, as many did — five or six being mounted 

 upon him at once. For he was a stud of ten years 

 of age, of great strength, of the Arabian race,jind 

 very high spirited ; and the governor himself, who 

 possessed several thousands of wild horses — and 

 was the best horseman and herdsman in America, 

 always had thought, for the last four years, that it 

 was not in the art of man to break him. He was ^ 

 offered a thousand dollars for him the same day I 

 finished breaking him, by an English gentleman, 

 by the name of Humstead, who was travelling 

 through the country : a great price, in a country 

 where you can get a good horse for thirty or forty 

 dollars. I would always advise a man, that goes 

 to break a horse, to have a watch with him ; for 

 the time will always appear long to. him, when he 

 undertakes a horse of this description. It is very 

 uncommon to meet with a horse you cannot come 

 up to, so as to touch him in the forehead with your 

 left hand, in less than a half a quarter of an hour. 



