THE USEFULNESS OF THE MUSTANG 133 



subbreeds, and this tends to confuse those who purchase 

 the animals, while it gives opportunity, on the part of 

 the seller, to misrepresent without being detected. How- 

 ever, multiplication of breeds and subbreeds tends to 

 promote improvement. An honest, vigorous rivalry is 

 indicative of growth and progress. The "battle of the 

 breeds " may leave some slain by the wayside, but the 

 fittest survive. The cyclonic arguments which period- 

 ically take place with some classes of breeders of live 

 stock clear the atmosphere. 



MUSTANGS 



The pure mustang traces directly back to the Spanish 

 horse, being the offspring of horses escaped from 

 domestication. The horses brought from Spain during 

 the Conquest of Mexico, 1519-22, formed the foundation 

 stock for this hardy, vicious, wiry, unreliable, smoky- 

 dun, yellow-clay, mouse -white or pink-roan, piebald, 

 everlasting, bucking mustang. The forces of nature 

 might have made a more erratic horse and one of 

 tougher material, but never did. Happily, the same 

 conditions which produced the horse produced a man 

 able to tame and ride him. No other horse could have 

 withstood the uses to which he was put, and no other 

 man but the plains -man could have put a horse to such 

 uses and abuses. The early civilization and conditions, 

 and the climate, produced men who were not content 

 unless something as exciting as lassoing a Texas steer, 

 fighting wild Indians or riding the wilder mustang were 

 a daily pastime. The mustang has been a most helpful 





