The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1901-02-06
Breaking Horses for the Kaiser.

there is a.small army Of broncho- bus
ters and professional horse trainer
whe are hard ct work breaking youn,
mustapgsfor the German Army. Hh,
Emperor has ordered 5000 Of thes,
horses for use in China, and the en-
tire order is being filed here.
Strong corrals and fearless riders
are restraining the untamcd creaturert
of the plains, and day after day there
are as exciting scenes as those which
form thrilling features of wild West
show.
Into big field back of :ho ETanfor-
an race track the snortiug,. Wild thing q
are run. There they remain a day,
perhaps two or.three, before a.change
comes. Then the vaqueros ride in
and seregate bunch of twenty or
thirty and herd them over the mile of
poad to the coarals.
Up to this moment, possibly, no
human being has 'evcr touched one Of
these wild horses. No rope has ever
been on their necks, yet they hardly
look to be the 6endish brutes that,
within an hour, will be rearing and
tearing and kicking to avoid being halt
eEed.
Two or three of th hem are let out of
the inclosure by agateway that opens
into small triangular pen, leading to
narrow chute with two sliding doors,
between which the animal is Instantly
penned when he is driven into the al
leyway.
Caught in trap. the wild horse
founders powerfully and makes
frightful noise as he scrambles to get
out of the cramped position. Mean
time three men, working from above,
arc trying to get halter about the
animals head.
Finally they succeed. The halter
is a heavy, leathcrn affair, with o
strong twelve-foot rope attached to it.
The outer door is swung open from
above, and out the horse shoots
as if he had been hurled from cata-
pult.
Blu. he is Let free. He is simply in
another corral, and he is terrified and
infuriated at the.trailing rope which
reminds him of the snake of the ranch
which nature taught him to hold in
constant dread.
But other horses that have been
haltered in the chute are in this corral
and'the captive quicts bit, only to
start suddenly and pull back when
ever one Of the others happens to step
on the trailing rope and show him
that he is fastened to something.
More horses are forced into and out
of this chute, until the corral has
dozen animals in it. In the middle of
the pen is big solid post and all the
uprights of the surrounding fences are
equally big and strong. First one of
horses is tied short up to .Lc central
post, called the "snubbing post" and
then another takes turn. Each pulls
back, piunges, lunges and throws him
self violently upon the straw covered
ground.
After all have had turn at these
spasms, one after another is tied to
the fence posts. There they remain
for day or two days, hay and water
being brought to them,
Then comes the supreme trial. The
animals are herded into the saddliDg
corral, where the vanqueros go in
among them and begin operations.
The worst horses have to be thrown
before the saddle can be put on them;
the less excitable are saddled simply
by blindfolding them with strip of
sacking.
But at no instant does the "bron-
cho- buster know what may be done
by the quiet looking horse.
When the men slip into the saddle
the fight begins in earnest. The ami
NAL becomes crazed, terrified, devilish,
a fiend in its intense desire to hurl
the burden from its back.
The contract calls for horses or
mares between and 10years of age,
fourteen hands two inches high,
weighing about 1,05G pounds. 1t is
the buyers business TO see that every
one is sound.
About 5 per cent. Of the horses sent
in are rejected for interior size,
some for immaturity, others for excess
Of age and others for blemishes and
slight defects.
Horses weighing more than l,05O
pounds are kept for light artillery du-