Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1876-05-22
THE GREAT MUSTANG RACE.


are plainly seen"
THE GREAT MUSTANG RACE.
THE BEAUTY, SPEED, vICIoUsNEss, AND
MARVELLOUS ENDURANCE OF THE PONIES.
The drove of mustangs which c. V.
Hand has brought from California win
be taken to Fleetwood Park to-day for
exercise. preparatory to the remarkable
race which they are to make against
time on Tuesday next. Mr. Hand ex-
hibited the mustangs in their pasture at
Seacaucus, N. J.. to his friends yestor-
day, and had their riding qualities tested
by Californian and Mexican riders.
There are thirty-six horses in the drove,
and thirty of them are entered for the
race, each of them being expected to run
ten miles in half an hour to make the
wagered 800 miles in fifteen hours. They
are small, light horses averaging four
teen hands three inches, and weighing
about 1000 pounds each. All are about
five years old. Although they have been
broken in and used to some extent upon
their native ranches, they are as wild as
so many bufaloes. Pretticr animals were
never seen. In spite of the crowns and
crosses, poothooks and letters that their
various owners have burned in their
tanks, and although their shaggy coats
are strangers to the currycomb and brush,
the natural beauty of their well proper
toned bodies, muscular and finely fash
ioned legs, and proudly held heads. is
still apparent. Thirty-two of them have
just been shod for the first time. They
resented the performance of the operation
so Justify that some of them had to be
thrown upon their backs, others were
slung in midair, and still others were
held by as many men as could gather
around them. When all were shod, Reil-
ly, the blacksmith of the settlement,
looked as though he had been worsted in
a prize fight. His nose was torn upward,
his shoulders and shins skinned, his
cheek gashed, and one arm terribly bruis-
ed.-"Thank God !'' said he, when the
thirty-two were shod, they've left me
so can stand up r
The Californians and Mexicans, one of
whom is to ride the horses during the Is
hours of the race, were brought up among
the fiery creatures, and understand them
as they do each other Yesterday each
rider buckled on his mustang great
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cradle, hung his long check rope in
coil at one side donned his cruel long
spiked spurs, fitted great curbed and
sharp blated bit in his horses mouth,
and watched his chance while the auimal
reared, and plunged, and snorted, to leap
upon his back. Once on, the rancheman
rode like mad, the animals starting with
series of frantic leaps, then subsiding
into steady, rapid gallop, tossing mud
and stones behind them, and disappear
ing rapidly below hill. In moment
they returned, painting from exertion and
bleeding at the mouth from the wounds
their bits had inflicted. A rider threw
away his bit and bride, and trusted to
halter.-After race of ten minutes he
was glad to be rescued from his unman-
ageable steed by another horseman, who
fastened the end of the runaway's halter
to the pummel of his own saddle, and
brought the horse to sudden stop.
Forty thousand dollars has been wa
gered upon the race, $4,000 against
the horses and Sl5,O in their favor.
Two wealthy gentlemen, who have never
been identified with sporting affairs, and
do not wish to be, have put up the money.
The race will begin at four o'clock
Tuesday morning, one man riding all the
horses. Some wonderful feats have been
performed upon the backs of horses Of
the same breed as these. A relay rider,
named Jack Powers. in 1850. carried the
mails from Los Angeles in Southern Cal
ifornia to Monterey in Mexico, dis
tance of 225 miles, over plains, desetrs.
and mountainous roads. in "a hours.
lassoing and saddling his horses as be
travelled. In 1853, in San Francisco,
he rode 100 miles in less than hours,
using IA horses.-,San.