226 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 
and alight upon his feet as the horse falls. After riding for a 
couple of hours, the vaquero reaches forward, pushes the blind 
down over the horse’s eyes and dismounts. To dismount with- 
out first putting down the blind would be very dangerous, for 
the horse would probably kick him. He takes off the saddle, 
hoists the blind, ties him to a fence or a tree with his head up, 
and gives him neither food nor water. The next morning he 
is very stiff and hungry. The vaquero does not feed him, but 
pulls down the blind, puts on the saddle, mounts him again, 
and the scenes of the previous day are re-enacted, though the 
jumping is less furious. After a couple of hours of exercise, 
the horse is tied where he can get water and grass. Every day 
he is ridden. In five or six days he quits jumping. In three 
months the blind is laid aside. In four months a bit is put in 
his mouth. This is strange to him, and he jumps stifFlegged. 
If the first bit used is American, he will jump again when the 
harsher Spanish bit is used. When any thing is wrong he jumps 
stifflegeed. During the first month or two his nose will be 
very sore where the jaquima or halter crosses it, caused by the 
pulling of the halter in holding and guiding the animal. At the 
end of a couple of months he learns to follow the guidance of 
the jaquima almost as readily as afterward the bit. After he 
has been ridden daily for six months, he has become tame and 
quiet, and he commences to fatten up again; for during the 
first three or four weeks he worries himself so much, with his 
vain plungings, that he loses flesh rapidly. The Californian 
horse, when once broken, is kindly in disposition. He rarely 
bites or kicks, no matter how roughly he may be used. 
After having been broken to the saddle, he must be taught 
the uses of the reata. The vaquero always carries his reata 
with him, and the horse soon learns to see it swinging about 
the rider’s head. The reata is first thrown at small calves and 
then at larger ones, and the horse gradually learns that he can 
best hold a lassoed animal by presenting his head toward it, 
and bracing himself back with his fore-feet. The reata is fast- 
ened to the horn of a saddle, strong enough to hold a bull. 
