40 FOREIGN BREEDS OF HORSES. 



WTien the Gaucho wishes to take a wild horse, lie mounts one that has been 

 used to the sport, and gallops over the plain. As soon as he comes sufficiently 

 near his prey, " the lasso is thrown round the two hind legs, and as the Gaucho 

 rides a little on one side, the jerk pulls the entangled horse's feet laterally, so as 

 to throw him on his side, without endangering his knees or his face. Before 

 the horse can recover the shock, the rider dismounts, and snatching his poncho 

 or cloak from his shoulders, wraps it round the prostrate animal's head. He 

 then forces into his mouth one of the powerful bridles of the country, straps a 

 saddle on his back, and bestriding him, removes the poncho ; upon which the 

 astonished horse springs on his legs, and endeavours by a thousand vain efforts 

 to disencumber himself of his new master, who sits quite composedly on his 

 back, and, by a discipline which never fails, reduces the horse to such complete 

 obedience, that he is soon trained to lend his whole speed and strength to the 

 capture of his companions *." 



These animals possess much of the form of the Spanish horse, from which 

 they sprang ; they are tamed, as has been seen, with far less difficulty than 

 could be thought possible ; and although theirs is the obedience of fear, and 

 enforced at first by the whip and spur, there are no horses who so soon and so 

 perfectly exert their sagacity and their power in the service of man. They are 

 possessed of no extraordinary speed, but they are capable of enduring immense 

 fatigue. They are frequently ridden sixty or seventy miles without drawing 

 bit, and have been urged on by the cruel spur of the Gaucho more than a hun- 

 dred miles, and at the rate of twelve miles in the hour. 



Like the Arab horses, they know no intermediate pace between the walk and 

 the gallop. Although at the end of a day so hard, their sides are horribly 

 mangled, and they completely exhausted, there is this consolation for them, — 

 they are immediately turned loose on the plains, and it will be their own fault 

 if they are speedily caught again. The mare is occasionally killed for food, and 

 especially on occasions of unusual festivity. General San Martin, during the 

 war for independence, gave a feast to the Indian allies attached to his army in 

 which mares' flesh, and the blood mixed with gin, formed the whole of the 

 entertainment. 



On such dry and sultry plains the supply of water is often scanty, and then 

 a species of madness seizes on the horses, and their generous and docile qualities 

 are no longer recognised. They rush violently into every pond and lake, 

 savagely mangling and trampling upon one another ; and the carcasses of many 

 thousands of them, destroyed by their fellows, have occasionally been seen in 

 and around a considerable pool. That is one of the means by which the too 

 rapid increase of this quadruped is, by the ordinance of nature, there prevented. 

 Humboldt says that during the periodical swellings of the large rivers, immense 

 numbers of wild horses are drowned, particularly when the r'iver Apure is 

 swollen, and these animals are attempting to reach the rising grounds of the 

 Llanos. The mares may be seen, during the season of high water, swimming 

 about followed by their colts, and feeding on the tall grass, of which the tops 

 alone wave above the waters. In this state they are pursued by crocodiles, and 

 their thighs frequently bear the prints of the teeth of these carnivorous reptiles. 

 They lead for a time an amphibious life, surrounded by crocodiles, water-ser- 

 pents, and marsetees. When the rivers return again into their beds, they roam 

 in the savannah, which is then spread over with a fine odoriferous grass, and 

 seem to enjoy the renewed vegetation of springt. 



* Basil Hall's Journey 10 Peru and Mexico, general use. The men leap on their backs 



vol. i. p. 151. The Jesuit Dobrizhoffcr, in his without assistance. 



history of the Abipones, a nation of Para- f- Humboldt's Pers. Nar., vol. iv. p. 394. 



guay, and speaking of the tamed horse, (vol. — LyeU'B Geology. 

 ii. p. 113,) says, that "Stirrups are not in 



