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A WILD HORSE. 



While residing at Henderson in Kentucky, I became acquainted 

 with a gentleman who had just returned from the country in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the head waters of the Arkansas River, where he had pur- 

 chased a newly caught " Wild Horse," a descendant of some of the horses 

 originally brought from Spain, and set at liberty in the vast prairies of 

 the Mexican lands. The animal was by no means handsome : — he had a 

 large head, with a considerable prominence in its frontal region, his thick 

 and unkemt mane hung along his neck to the breast, and his tail, too 

 scanty to be called flowing, almost reached the ground. But his chest 

 was broad, his legs clean and sinewy, and his eyes and nostrils indicated 

 spirit, vigour, and endurance. He had never been shod, and although he 

 had been ridden hard, and had performed a long journey, his black hoofs 

 had suffered no damage. His colour inchned to bay, the legs of a deeper 

 tint, and gradually darkening below until they became nearly black. I 

 inquired what might be the value of such an animal among the Osage 

 Indians, and 'was answered, that the horse being only four years old, he 

 had given for him, with the tree and the buffalo tug fastened to his head, 

 articles equivalent to about thirty-five dollars. The gentleman added, 

 that he had never mounted a better horse, and had very little doubt, that 

 if well fed, he could carry a man of ordinary weight from thirty-five to 

 forty miles a-day, for a month, as he had travelled at that rate upon him, 

 without giving him any other food than the grass of the prairies, or the 

 canes of the bottom lands, until he had crossed the Mississippi at Natchez, 

 when he fed him with corn. Having no farther use for him, now that he 

 had ended his journey, he said he was anxious to sell him, and thought he 

 might prove a good himting horse for me, as his gaits were easy, and he 

 stood fire as well as any charger he had seen. Having some need of a 

 horse possessed of qualities similar to those represented as belonging to 

 the one in question, I asked if I might be allowed to try him. " Try 

 him. Sir, and welcome ; nay, if you will agree to feed him and take care 

 of him, you may keep him for a month, if you choose." So I had the 

 horse taken to the stable and fed. 



About two hours afterwards, I took my gun, mounted the prairie 

 nag, and went to the woods. I was not long in finding him very sensible 



