CHAPTER XXIII 



HARD RIDING IN CALIFORNIA 



AMONG the many experiences which impress 

 strangers in California, especially visitors 

 from the New England States where horseback 

 riding is not, or was not in my time, in partic- 

 ular favor is the trail riding. Hiding in the West 

 is often entirely different from that in the East. 

 I remember a friend from New York complained 

 to me in the old days that he could not in all 

 Pasadena find a horse with a " park gait." But 

 I said, " You can find one that will bring you 

 safely down a mountainside as steep as the 

 side of a house," and before long he ceased to 

 pine for a " park gait," really very desirable at 

 times I think, and began to enjoy the horses 

 that could take anything, and at any time. I 

 must confess to a weakness for what an old 

 friend in the East insists upon calling " des- 

 perate riding," but which is really not so, if one 

 but understands his horse. There is an excite- 

 ment about it, a seeming risk that seems to fall 

 into line with playing a big fish, or following 

 some game supposed to be dangerous, but after 



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