Year: 1866

cracked clay as hard as adobe, and sometime
| with treaCherOus sand.
| Not word have we ever seen it necessary tt
| speak to him save the word bravo "-and tha


necessity belonged to the riders sense of justice


not the horse's encouragement. Without hin


from his rider, he always put himself in thf
| proper shape the instant he touched the brink O.


the precipice with hisfonr hoofs. II the thing


could be done, he took the entire chasm flying
were it too wide for one jump, he plunged head
long in q lightning succession of several, will
his powerful hooks thrown under him as far as
the base of perpendicular dropped from the
withers; supposing it too steep for that, he pre-
pared himself for slide, and took the gldcis
almost on his launches, or with a promptness OF
resource worthy of a general, at once converted
the direct line into longer and less steep OBJ
lique, reaching the bottom by that most difficult
of al actions which requires two legs to be braced
upon the same side.


Hunting deer with him in the Pacific States we
have ridden him through miles of the worst chap.
paral that ever veXed man or hOrse-the inextri-
cable snarl or close set manzanita and burr.oak-
growing over fallen timber; which the scrub en-
tirely hides-timber in some cases three feet in
diameter, sometimes hard, sometimes rotten com.
pletely through, and in all cases worse trap than
was ever set for hunter or ateeple-chaser-th
wiry scourges of the scrub fogging the horse
shoulder high Though the temper Of the particu-
lar animal referred to was in the highest degree
restif-as is the case with all rst-class Arabs or
mustangs-he never once lost his self possession,
never reafeu uach ou MS Flueri Dut gaming pluck
at every leap pursued his unerring instinct from
invisible foothold to foothold, neither crashing
through rotten wood nor striking his pasterns on
the hard trunks; never once stumbling, "running
through" his obstacles, nor in any way breaking
out of his series of clear leaps for mile att time


We have seen him in his trot, his rack his
canter and his run. AS was famousy the case
with the Arab, there is no pace the mustang
cannot learn; scarcely any he does not adopt of
his own accord to suit different circumstances.
WppKl9 frnffn1 m
eight miles in twenty-six minutes, on uneven
country, and without break. His rack 1--WE use
the word to avoid the generality of ''pacen) is
so speedy, as often the Plains, in his wild state,
to tire out the best trained runners on which
he is pursued with ariat. He will carry a
rider of fourteen stone, as the old Plainsmen
say, from sunup to sundown," without once
going off the easy lope. His running gait can
only be appreciated by those who have seen him
behind band of antelope or in the lightning
evolutions of an array of Navajo or Camanche
warriors.


If his weight-carrying abilities be thought com.
promised by his small size, let US add that we
have seen mere pony specimen of the mustang
carrying three well grown Indian lads from four
teen to eighteen, with the lodge poles of their
tents dragging behind him from the girths, and
heavy tent appurtenances borne in a blanket,
thrown across them-ths during whole days
march, and without any more ado than one of
our Ranucks would make in bearing single
rider. ~


But gupposing his weight carrying qualitieswere
small in proportion to his size, let it be remem-
bered that such qualities were never. especially
predicated of the Arabian. 1t is to the maternal
side that we must invariably look for the perfec-
ton of such qualities in progeny. One fact
throws a flood of light on the proposition. The
little Godophin, who died in 1858, was, as we may
once more recall, but fourteen and half hands
in height. In l76l, one of his fifteen sons, the
Covers stallion, carried eighteen stone through a
whole days hunt.


This subjectwiIl bear much greater amplifcaton
but we have sufficiently indicated the line which
itmay be desirable. to pursue in creating cross
which shall be distinctly American. To any man
in possession of the facts we have given it must
be evident that we have the high mettled, speedy
and generous-natured sres-the nobe-framed and
vigorous mothers of a race which, for cavalry and
turf purposes, deserves to be created by the en-,
lightened horse-breeders of America. This crea-
ton need not interfere with the propagation of
thoroughbreds, by imported blood. Il ought to
run parallel with it. There are purposes of use
and sport which we may point out in a future ar.
ticle, which it would subserve as well as war and
the race ground. And who, in fine, can better
take up this most original and valuable project
practically, as well as the A. j. c.? FL.