THE BATTLE OF THE HORSES 35 



the troop happens to take it into their head to make off, in which 

 case you will have a long ride upon their tracks in the morning. 



The horses throughout the Argentine Republic are known by 

 their colours (for which the Spanish language supplies an extra- 

 ordinary variety of terms signifying every tint and shade), and to 

 these names they answer. Some of the names are melodious and 

 pretty — alazan, which means chestnut, cruzado, the name given to 

 a horse that possesses alternate white feet, the off fore and the near 

 hind foot, or the other way round. There is a theory among the 

 Gauchos that a cruzado will never tire. I cannot do better than 

 give a list of the names of the horses of my own tropilla, though, 

 of course, there are many others : 



Alazan, chestnut. Overo, piebald or skew- 



Asulejo, bluish-grey and bald, 

 white in patches. Pangard, brown or bay with 



Bayo, fawn. fawn muzzle. 



Blanco, white. Picaso, black with white 



Cruzado, with crossed white blaze and white legs, 

 feet. Rosado, red and white in 



Gateado, yellow with black patches, roan, 

 stripe down back. Rosillo, strawberry. 



Horqueta, slit-eared. Tordillo, grey. 



Mora, grey. Tostado, toast-coloured. 



Oscuro, black. Zaino, brown or dark bay. 



The taming of these horses is a business of which an account 

 may not be uninteresting. The methods used are of a very rough 

 description. The colt is caught from the manada, or troop of 

 mares in which he was born, with a lasso, a head-stall is put on 

 him and he is tied up to the palenque, or centre-post of the corral. 

 Here he is left for twelve hours or so, during which he generally 

 expends his energies in trying to pull the palenque out of the 

 ground. He is then saddled up, generally with an accompaniment 

 of bucking, and the Gaucho who is to tame him climbs upon his 

 back. Another mounted Gaucho is near by to " ride off," which 

 he does by galloping between the colt and any dangerous ground 

 or object Probably the colt will begin by bucking, but if he does 

 not do so during his first gallop it by no means follows that he will 



