The Washington herald., 1909-01-24

hours. On another pursuit twenty-five
men covered I7S miles in forty-two
hours
/ Col Dodge seems 10 take the ability
OF the United States calvaryrnan TO spend
many consecutive hours in the saddle and
3 70 ride many miles without a halt as a
matter Of course He cites most Of his
cases principally 20 show the remarkable
endurance of the very ordinary sort OF
horses the government provides for its
mounted troops.
t \ description Of one hard ride in pur-
suit of a deSerting first sergeant. =hO
had stolen mis- C0mDany'S s funds. is given
Z in detail 10 show how the most vas got
ont Of the animals with the minimum
risk OF Overraxing them we left the
post. al Fort Reno. Indian Territory, al
1,55 D m" said Capt A Z Wood. OF
the Fourth Cavalry. who was IN command
Of the abscOnding sergeants eight pur-
sUerS- The day was hot. and knowing
what was before me. I did not push the
animals very hard for the first twenty
five miles, which distance We had covered
by 2. m This brought us 10 King
( fisher Creek. where we halted for one
/ hour -UnsaddIcd. got something 10 eat.
/ let the horses roll and Craze. then groom
! ed their backs and legs. saddleG, and
started again at : p. IL.
I We walked for thirty minutes. trOtted
I fifty minutes, and then dismOUnted ard
rested ten minutes, mounted. and went al
the trot for fifty minutes. dismOunted.
and walked ten minutes. This rotation
CT tifty-minUte trotting periods and ten
minute rests was kept Up until midnight.
when there was a twenty-minUte halt.
followed by the same rotation untfI 40
hours sleep Another grooming OF legs
and backs followed the sleep. and then
the grind was resumed
The I5O-miIe Ride Completed.
And so il went. until after thirty-one
hours. all told. the troopers reached
Arkansas City. IJ0 miles from camp.
What happened 20 the dishonest deserter
does not appear in the record
AT that time continued Capt Wood,
OR mounts were purchased in Mis-
souri, and Kansas. The horse I rode was
twelve years old. the others were a lit
. tie younger. All the horses except one
We're IN good condition on our return
That one had been made unserviceabIe
by bad riding. The trooper who had him
was not a very good horseman and rode
too heavily forward I tired 10 correct
him. but IL Is impossible 10 teach all the
niceties Of horsmanship on a trip Ike
that II was the hardest ride I ever had
Some OF the famous rides by Westerners
not IN the army occurred I'm san Fran
cisco, where y H MOwry. with RELAYS
Of many horses. did 80 miles in fourteen
hours on race track in 1858. Ten years
before that J. Powers made 80 miles in
SIX hours and fOrty-three minutes. and
there is a tradition that a rider named
Anderson covered 1304 miles in ninety
hours
Among the pony express riders. T. Y
Aubrey undoubtedly held the record On
wager of SL0G9 he undertoow to ride
from Santa Fe 10 Independence. No. a
distance OF SO miles inside OF six davs
He did Il in five days and nineteen hours
He had a dozen fresh horses. waiting for
him at different points along the line. and
covered most Of the distance at a gallon
Jim Moore rode a mail route from Md
way Station 10 Julesburg, a distance Of
10 miles It was his regular custom 10
make the round trip Of go miles once a
week On one occasion the other rider on
that route was ill., and TO keep the sched-
Ule Unimpaired. Moore not only did dor,-
bic duty. but in less than half the time
he usually took for his weeks work. He
rode the 80 miles in twenty-five hours