Connecticut western news., 1876-06-02
THE MEXICAN MUSTANG.
His Wonderful Powers of Endurance
 How They are Trained for Racing.

His Wonderful Powers of Endurnnce---
 How They are Trained for Racing.
 Thirty of the mustangs lately brought from California were entered at the race in Fleetwood park, New York, each of them being expected to run ten miles in half an hour to make the wagered three hundred miles in tifteeE hours. They are small, light horses, averaging four teen hands three inches, and weighing about one thousand pounds each. All are about five years of age and as wild as so many bufaloes. Prettier animals were never seen. In spite of the crowns and crosses, poothooks and letters that their various owners have burned in their Hanks, and although their shaggy coats are strangers to the currycomb and brush, the natural beauty of their we'll proportioned bodies, muscular and finely fashioned legs and proudly held heads, is still apparent. They have been shod for the first time in their lives, and resented the performance of the operation so lustily 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, Reilly, the blacksmith of the settlement, looked as though he had been worsted in prize fight. His nose was torn upward, his shoulder and shins skinned, his cheek gashed and one arm terribly bruised. "Thank God 1" said he, when the thirty were shod, "they've left me so can stand up."
 The Californians and Mexicans with the animals were brought up among the fiery creatures, and understand them as they do each other. At the training, after the animals were lassoed, each rider buckled on his mustang a great cumbrous Mexican saddle, weighing forty pounds and looking like leather cradle, hung his long check rope in a coil at oIe side, donned his cruel long spiked spurs, fitted great, curbed and sharp plated bit in his horses mouth, and watched his chance, while the ami nal reared and plunged and snorted, to leap upon it's back. Once on, the ranch man rode like mad, tho animals starting with a series of frantic leaps, then sub- siding into a steady, rapid gallop, toss ing mud and stones behind them, and disappearing rapidly below hill. In moment they returned, panting from exertion and bleeding at the mouth rom CLG WOuuuS Gu01r D1GS uitu 1uA1CG0Us A rider threw away his bit and bridle and trusted to halter. After race of ten minutes, he was glad to be rescued from his unmanageable 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 6 sudden stop.
 In tue race at four o'clock in the morning Francisco Peralto vaulted into his place on the back of the initial broncho, rode like mad until the creature wavered, jumped then upon one of four saddled steeds, and so continued riding and exchanging horses until seven o'clock in the evening. Fifteen hours on the backs of vicious mustangs, with out rest, food or drink The endurance of the man seems to dwarf the bottom and speed of the horses. To win the wager, the animals, each in his turn, had to cover ten miles in something less than thirty minutes. The fearful rack and strain upon the Mexican can be imagined.