THE-:- HORSE 



still grasping the lariat rope he succeeded in 

 keeping his head a foot or two off the ground. 



His head by this time was at the point 

 which, in another chapter, we have discussed as 

 being the most efficacious place to approach a 

 horse. The animal, surprised a being grap- 

 pled in this manner, suddenly ceased his gyra- 

 tions and stood for a moment perfectly still. 

 The rider hung motionless. Any effort he 

 might make to regain the saddle would cer- 

 tainly fail and mean certain injury, because at 

 the man's first movement, the horse, whose 

 eyes were now red, would give him a terrible 

 fall with bucks and kicks, which from his posi- 

 tion he would be powerless to avoid. There- 

 fore, as he explained to me afterwards, the 

 rider decided to dismount. So, suddenly, he 

 let himself drop and rolled out of the line of 

 danger a mere fraction of a second before the 

 horse struck out wildly with his legs and, kick- 

 ing and bucking, disappeared into the neigh- 

 boring pine trees. 



Some argument then arose between the in- 

 terested spectators as to whether the episode 

 they had just been regarding should be de- 

 scribed as a man dismounting from or a man 

 falling off his horse. The cowboy sought to 

 dispel all doubt on this issue by maintaining, 

 with typical profanity, that he merely figured 

 it desirable to dismount. Personally, I think 

 the cowboy was right, only I would call it dis- 

 mounting under pressure. 



18 



