PRACTICES OF THE VAQUERO. 51 



it too dangerous to keep the saddle, and, if forced to the route, would 

 carefully lead his shod steed down the grade. Seeing this, the East- 

 ern horsemen extol the feet and legs of the " mustang," and ascribe 

 the immiinity from disease to some natural quality which other 

 breeds do not possess. There was no soaking in foot-tubs, no band- 

 aging of legs. Stopping with cow-dung and clay never entered the 

 thoughts of the owner, and he was as ignorant of " hoof ointments " 

 as he was of all the various shoes which have been invented to "keep 

 the feet in order." His aim was to harden the foot in lieu of soften- 

 ing it, and the sole was filled with tallow and seared with a red-hot 

 iron, when the wear, extending from the toe back, made the S^nimal 

 foot-sore. The legs never gave way, and though the healthy foot 

 had a good deal to do with the tendons remaining unsprung, it would 

 seem as if that were not a sufficient reason for the limbs standing 

 such rough treatment without sufiering serious injviry. 



Doubtless there was another favorable circumstance. The saddle 

 was placed so far back that the weight was thi-own on the centre of 

 the body, and to keep it in place the " cinch " was di-awn until it was 

 almost buried into the abdomen. The swell of the barrel was where 

 the girth was placed, and the purchase, which the manner of fasten- 

 ing afibrded, fixed it in place so firmly that it was immovable. The 

 trainer of race-horses places the saddle on the withers, and the jockey 

 bending forward until his head is almost as far in advance as that of 

 the horse, the whole weight is thrown on the fore legs. This weight 

 at every bound of the horse comes like a blow, and even the hundred- 

 pound boy falls with the force of a battering-ram on the extremities. 

 There is nothing to break the concussion, while the vaquero, though 

 nearly double the weight, is so far back that the yielding spinal col- 

 umn, and the huge, elastic muscles on either side of the back-bone, act 

 as a spring, and the illustration heretofore used, of the spring truck 

 saving the wheels, is again appropriate. 



The race-horse trainer says that the horse cannot run so fast with 

 the weight further back than where he places it, though I am not 

 ready to assent to the truth of this • until some experiments are ti-ied 

 to prove whether the assertion be sound or not ; and until these are 

 instituted I will not argue it. But if the barefooted horse of the 



