AGRICULTURE. 225 
ing is to put a saddle on him. It is fastened well, the blind is 
raised, and the full length of the rope given to him. He does 
‘not understand the saddle. It may be a carnivorous beast for 
all he knows. He is terrified at it. He jumps, and snorts, and 
kicks, rears and pitches, throws himself down, worries himself 
out, and falls into an agony of despair. After an hour or so 
of such work, the vaquero advances again, puts down the 
blind, and the horse stands trembling with fear and exhaus- 
tion. He is now to be ridden. The rope is fastened under the 
chin, so that it can be used for a bridle-rein ; the horse’s ears 
are pushed down under the upper part of the jaquima, so that 
he shall be deaf as well as blind; the saddie-girth is tightened, 
and the rider mounts. Over the saddle he has a second girth, 
which is loose enough to allow him to get the point of his knee, 
bent at right angles, under it. This girth ties him upon the horse. 
The more he presses the knee outward, the tighter the girth 
holds him; whereas by turning his knees inward and straight- 
ening his legs, he can be free in an instant. Having put his 
knees under the girth (he does not care for the stirrups and 
cannot use them) he reaches forward, takes the ears out from 
under the jaquima, and raises the blind. The horse, as soon as 
he sees the man on his back, is stricken with a new terror. He 
immediately commences to jump stifflegged. He springs up 
into the air and comes down on his fore-feet with his legs stiff. 
This is the way in which horses try to shake off panthers, and 
they resort to the same method with men. The shock would 
be severe if the man were not tied down to the saddle, but he 
moves with the horse and is not hurt with the shock. Some- 
times a horse will jump thus for hour after hour, and the rider 
is very well satisfied, for there is no danger in the jumping, and 
it is very tiresome to the animal. Some horses, after jumping 
for a few minutes, will commence to run. To this the rider 
makes no opposition, but practises the horse with the reins to 
accustom him to guidance. The most dangerous horses are 
those which rear up and fall backward. In such case the 
vaquero must be ready to throw off the girth from his knees, 
nigt 
