

HISTORY. 499 



barons rider. When the dreadful task is done, mangled, 

 terrified, and fainting from fatigue, they are turned loose on 

 the plains to perish, or rejoin, as best they may, their lost 

 companions. 



These Horses have reassumed, to a certain degree, the cha- 

 racter of the wild type, as it is exemplified in the Horses of 

 Tartary. The head has become larger, the ears more long, 

 the limbs more muscular, and the general form less sym- 

 metrical, than in the race from which they are descended. 

 Their hair, however, has not become long and shaggy as in 

 the Tartar horses, because they inhabit a soft and genial 

 clime ; but it has tended to that uniformity of colour which 

 distinguishes the wild from the domestic races of all animals. 

 Their colour is always of a chestnut-brown, and never dun, 

 as in the Tartar races ; and whenever a bay, a black, or 

 other colour appears, it is inferred that the individual is of 

 the domesticated race, and has made its escape and joined 

 the wild herds. They are enduring, it has been said, but 

 not very fleet, and are easily run down by the subjugated 

 breeds. 



The domesticated horses of these countries possessed by 

 the Spanish Americans, possess the general characters of 

 the race from which they are descended ; but being treated 

 with the utmost severity, and bred without attention to the 

 choice of the parents, they have lost much of the grace of 

 form and elegance of action which distinguish the true An- 

 dalusian. Stallions and mares are never ridden, and geld- 

 ings only are used for the saddle. They are usually kept in 

 extensive pasture-grounds, and driven periodically to the 

 corral, when the lazo and spur of the Guacho are employed 

 to remind them of their dependence. "When colts are to be 

 broken in, they are driven in a herd to the corral, subjected 

 one by one to the discipline of the lazo, and by mere force 

 and terror reduced to obedience. 



From the conquerors of these noble provinces, the Horse 

 has passed into the hands of the Indians of the interior, pro- 



