THE MEXICAN IN NEW MEXICO 35 



but a rara avis, where indifference to the 

 breeding, as well as to the comfort, of the 

 horse is rather the exception than the rule, 

 and where the native animal is seldom attrac- 

 tive to the eye unless half or three-quarters 

 American-bred ? How can the bony, ewe- 

 necked little Mexican steed, stiff-jointed from 

 colthood, be transformed as by a miracle into 

 the proud Spanish barb of our youthful fancy? 

 The thing is not to be done. Worse still, 

 there is that eyesore, the much - vaunted 

 ' Western seat,' affected alike by American 

 and Mexican, but far less exaggerated and 

 ungainly in the case of the latter than the 

 former. The Mexican, at least, possesses a 

 certain supple quality of limbs and body which 

 detracts from the unmitigated awkwardness 

 of the ' forked radish ' cowboy style of riding 

 heels working, reins held high in air. The 

 average Far Western horseman is more or 

 less helpless without his cumbrous saddle, in 

 which he sits as in a deep chair ; the Mexican, 

 on the contrary, provided he lays any claim 

 to being a horseman, is as much at home on 

 his horse's bare back as he is in the saddle. 

 There is a wild picturesqueness about the 



32 



