240 RURAL CALIFORNIA 



in the now well-known gorgeous trappings of the 

 Mexican cowboy. And then their saddles! If any 

 inanimate handiwork of man ever owned the dignity 

 and grace, that in creatures animate we recognize 

 as marking a thoroughbred ancestry, a product of 

 generations of careful selective breeding, it is the 

 characteristic California saddle. No saddle ever 

 made has equalled it, either in beauty or for the safe 

 handling of the most massive bull that ever ranged 

 the foothills behind Visalia." 



The horses by the help of which these dramatic 

 things were achieved were those in which California 

 abounded and were undoubtedly a product of selec- 

 tion toward a type which met the unique require- 

 ments of the life. Although the cattle and sheep 

 were generic, the horse of the pioneer was specific 

 and bred from the best available for its purpose. 

 Before Americans came it had assumed a type, of 

 which it was written at the time : "The native Mex- 

 ican mustang has many excellent qualities. He is 

 capital under the saddle and very quick in his move- 

 ments. No horse excels him in keeping up a steady 

 liveliness. He will subsist on scanty food and bear 

 you sixty miles a day, upon occasion; his gait being 

 always a gallop. He is light weight and not well 

 suited for draft." 



At first and for several years, until the American 

 preference for wheeled vehicles asserted itself, Cali- 

 fornians new and old, old and young, moved in the 

 saddle. Horses were so abundant that on a journey 

 one seldom bargained for a horse, but caught a fresh 



