148 The Book of the Horse. 



hide. The head-stall is of horse-hair, elaborately ornamented with silver or plated buckles. With 

 his bridle the horse can be turned on its haunches with one turn of the wrist. 



The saddle is a light frame of wood, the side pieces shaped to fit a horse's back. The seat 

 is almost straight, and nearly forms a right angle with the pommel and cantle ; these are about eight 

 inches above the seat. The pommel ends with a knob. The cantle, rather wide at top and 

 bottom, is cut away in the middle to fit the leg or heel of the rider, and form his support when he 

 throws himself (out of sight) on one side of the horse, right or off-side, leaving the left hand free 

 to grasp the reins, while the right grasps the mane or pommel. When riding under ordinary 

 circumstances his seat and carriage are very ungraceful ; the short stirrups force him to sit almost 

 on the small of his back ; his head pokes forwards as far as his neck will let him ; his left 

 hand holds the reins, his right is armed with a short stick with a lash of raw hide. With a light 

 blow of this he marks every slip of his horse. He has no spurs, but his heels are constantly 

 drumming his horse's ribs with a nervous motion. He scarcely ever turns his head, and when 

 most watchful appears to see nothing. Looking stiff, constrained, uncomfortable on horseback, he 

 yet will, with his horse at full speed, pick a small coin from the ground, and throw himself on the 

 side of the horse in such a position that only a small portion of his leg or foot can be seen on the 

 other side. 



The ponies are as carefully trained as the riders. Colonel Dodge relates (but does not say 

 that he was present) how a Comanche pony in Texas, "a miserable sheep of a pony, with legs 

 like churns, three inches of rough hair all over the body, with a general expression of neglect 

 and helplessness and patient suffering, which struck pity into the hearts of all beholders," ridden 

 by a stalwart Comanche of one hundred and seventy pounds (i2st. 2lbs.), armed with a club, 

 first won a race of four hundred yards from the third best horse of the garrison by a neck. 



Then another race against the second-best blood-horse. "The officers, thoroughly disgusted, 

 proposed a third race, and brought to the ground a magnificent Kentucky mare of the true 

 Lexington blood, which could beat the other two at least forty yards in four hundred. The 

 Indians accepted the challenge, and not only doubled the bets, but piled everything they could 

 raise on it. The riders mounted, the word was given. The Indian threw away his club, gave a 

 whoop, and the sheep pony pricked his ears and went away two feet to the mare's one. The 

 last fifty yards of the course was run with the rider sitting with his face to the tail of the pony, 

 grimacing horribly, and beckoning the rider of the mare to come on ! " (! ! !) 



The woodwork of the saddle is covered with green hide, which drying, binds all the parts 

 together, and makes the saddle almost as strong as iron. 



The girth is a broad band of plaited hair, terminating in iron rings, which are attached to 

 the saddle on the principle of the Mexican cinche, by which a man of ordinary strength can 

 almost crush a horse's ribs. 



The stirrup is of thin wood, fastened to the saddle with raw hide. The skin of a wolf or 

 calf, or a pair of old blankets, is used as padding between the horse and saddle. The stirrups 

 are extremely short and of little use, except to mount or rest the feet. 



PONIES IN MARYLAND. 



" The little nag I bestrode was barely fourteen hands, and although I rode thirteen stone 

 and a half, and had come twenty miles over very bad roads, she was just as fresh and anxious 

 to push on as if she had just left the stable. All I saw would have been regarded as 

 extraordinary little creatures for their inches. More lasting, more valuable, not so high but 



