172 EAMBLES AFTER SPORT. 



— amateur huasos — get annually killed or injured by 

 endeavouring to show off an inferior horse. A horse 

 is not considered properly trained unless he knows how 

 to jpechar or push; some are wonderful at this trick — 

 rushing at another horse sideways, giving him a push 

 with the point of the shoulder, and over you go, horse 

 and all ; in fact a good huaso on a well-trained pushing 

 horse is an exceedingly awkward customer to meet. At 

 all race meetings there are booths where drinking and 

 dancing goes on; in front of the booth is a strong oaken 

 bar, about three feet high, and just sufficiently distant 

 to allow a glass of liquor to be passed from the 

 counter to the men on horseback outside. The bar may 

 be about ten or twelve feet long, and the object of every 

 well-mounted huaso is to "keep the bar,'^ as it is called. 

 Supposing six or seven are drinking together, with the 

 heads and necks of their horses projecting over the bar, 

 on a sudden a man from the outside rushes his horse in 

 between the middle of them, and endeavours to push and 

 keep away all the others and remain master of the bar ; 

 he then takes his drink, if he can, and goes off to another 

 booth. On one occasion I saw a horse keep off seven 

 others, knocking them over one after the other, till no 

 one dared to go near him. This, however, was a well- 

 known horse. A good horse also must stop almost 

 instantaneously at the gallop ; a common feat is to place 

 a manta on the ground at one hundred yards off; the 

 rider then starts at full gallop and pulls up on the manta, 

 which is about half the size of a woman-'s shawl. Gleneral 

 Rosas used frequently to amuse himself by galloping 

 full tilt up to an esequia, or deep ditch, and pulling up 

 over the hrinh. There is this point, however, of difference 

 between the riding of the Gauchos and Chilenos : the 



