Buckskin horse

“ Keeping as close to the face of the wall of stone as possible, and stepping carefully, Brickdust crossed the broken spot in the cliff trail.
“Sim, you help Bob get his mount over,” said Frank, as he started to follow the example of Mr. Riley.
Of course Buckskin gave no trouble. He had been brought up amid such wild surroundings, and was as sure-footed as a mountain goat. Besides, doubtless during the innumerable gallops taken by Frank, they had frequently been compelled to navigate ticklish paths, where a slip meant disaster; so the horse was used to such things. ”

“ He knew what that action meant, and that a keen knife was being drawn over the holding lariat.
Now Buckskin was free from his tether. He could be seen for the first time rearing in the air, as a cow pony always will when full of spirit, or excited.
Frank had thrown his rifle half way to his shoulder on the impulse of the moment. Then, as if on second thought, he let it drop again; and Bob actually believed he heard him give vent to a chuckle.
“Why don’t you shoot at him, Frank?” the latter cried, excitedly. “Look! he’s going to run away with your horse!”
“Is he?” answered Frank. ”

“ To the man direction was lost—it was like being above the clouds; but the buckskin held on his way straight and true; fighting, fighting, making the glorious fight that is without fear. To stop, to falter, meant death; the buckskin knew it; but he was tiring.
Carney unslung his picket line, put the loop around his chest below his arms, fastened it to the saddle horn, leaving a play of eight feet, and slipping to the ground, clutched the horse's tail, and patted him on the rump. The buckskin knew ”

“ Maybe the shoe is on the other foot; and Buckskin is going to run away with him! Watch what happens, Bob!”
“Oh! look at the pony kick up!” gasped Bob. “But that’s a good rider, Frank. He sticks like a leech, and he may beat the horse at his own game!”
“Wait!”
Frank knew his horse. He had won a victory over the vicious little beast only after the longest fight recorded in the history of Circle Ranch. [Pg 60] And among the cow punchers there were few indeed who could stick on the back of Buckskin when he started his bucking tactics. ”

“ The clatter of horses' hoofs roused them from their dying dream, and thus it was that Buckskin Joe had his full share in the rescue of the little girl, after all. It was the contents of his canteen and wallet which brought life back to the perishing.
As soon as the rescued were sufficiently revived, Dr. Carollyn took the girl before him on his horse, supporting her firmly in one arm. Joe gave up his animal to Nat, and trudged along on foot, with that long, loping step which takes these guides over the ground with such ease and rapidity. ”

“ CHAPTER VII THE RUSTLERS
At a word from his master the well trained Buckskin doubled up, and lay down on the ground. Most cowboy ponies are taught to do this trick by their masters, and it is in common use; so that the punchers believe it is a poor animal that has not learned to roll over and play dead on occasion.
Bob, too, managed to induce his mount to do the same thing; but to make it absolutely certain that no unwise flounder on the part of Domino might betray them, he sat upon the horse's head, soothing him by little pats on his glossy hide. ”

“ He's the biggest cougar ever known of in these parts. His tracks are bigger than a horse's, an' have been seen on Buckskin for twelve years. This wrangler—his name is Clark—said he'd turned his saddle horse out to graze near camp, an' Old Tom sneaked in an' downed him. The lions over there are sure a bold bunch. Well, why shouldn't they be? No one ever hunted them. You see, the mountain is hard to get at. But now you're here, if it's big cats you want we sure can find them. Only be easy, be easy. You've all the time there is. An' any job on Buckskin will take time. ”

“ On one occasion his master descried a band of 100 warriors, who gave them chase from the headwaters of the Republican River to Fort McPherson, a distance of 195 miles. It was at a season when the ponies were in good condition, and the savage band, though thirsting for the scalp of their well-known foe, Pa-he-has-ka (the long-haired scout) , dropped behind until on the last fifty miles but fifteen of the fleetest were in pursuit, Buckskin leaving them out of sight twenty miles from the fort. ”

“ I had forgotten for a moment the folk in the bush, and when a man stepped out of the thicket I pulled up my horse with a start.
It was a tall native, who carried himself proudly, and after a glance at me, stalked along at my side. He wore curious clothes, for he had a kind of linen tunic, and around his waist hung a kilt of leopard-skin. In such a man one would have looked for a ting-kop, [1] but instead he had a mass of hair, not like a Kaffir's wool, but long and curled like some popular musician's. ”

“ Meanwhile, the head is held low and the neck stiff, in order to resist the effect of the rider's hand; since, if the head were up and the mouth and neck relaxed, the spine also would be freed, and the buck-jump could not be executed. Some horses, already trained, when they have their girths too tight will buck-jump. But, in general, the movement is consequent to some provocation, and employed by the horse as a defense. Not infrequently, a horse, having once freed its back from its rider's weight, will continue to practice this defense until it develops the habit. ”

“ Of a sudden my horse would have a forefoot in a pool of black peat-water, from which I would scarce, by much pulling, recover him. A sharp jag of stone in the way would all but bring him to his knees. So we dragged wearifully along, scarce fearing, caring, hoping for anything in this world or another. ”

“ Bucking is a desperate effort to throw the rider; the horse will gather his legs under him in as close a group as possible, curve his back upward like an angry Tabby when she espies Towser, lower his head, endeavor to burst the saddle-girths by forcibly expanding his abdomen, and then without making any advance or retreat bound up and down upon all four legs, which are held as rigid as iron rods. Sometimes he will produce a see-saw movement by repeatedly and rapidly throwing himself from his hind to his fore legs. ”

“ For the better part of an hour hounds ran without a check—away from the enclosed fields and the woodlands to a country of furzy downs and bracken-filled hollows, and then once more into a land of tangled thickets. It took about twenty minutes to clear Squire Thicknesse's brain. Alastair heard a sudden roar behind him and looked over his shoulder to see a furious blue eye fixed on him, and to hear a bellow of—"Damme, it's my horse. It's my little Moonbeam!" ”

“ A week has glided away since I sent my last diary letter, with only two events of direct personal interest, one being that I have bought a young, powerful little Bakhtiari horse, which has been in camp since we left the Karun river, a dark bay, with black points, big feet, a big ugly head, and big flopping ears, but otherwise passably good-looking, an unsuspicious animal, brought up in tent life, with children rolling about among his feet, and as yet quite ignorant that man can be anything but his friend. ”

“ Already I was on the side; with a loud cry and a cut of my whip I rose my horse to it. The noble beast sprang forward, but his strength was spent, and he fell downwards on his head. Recovering him without losing my seat, I scrambled up the opposite bank and looked round. Burke, who had pressed the pace so hotly before, had only done so to blow my horse and break him down at his leap; and I saw him now approaching the fence with his mare fully in hand, and her haunches well under her. Unable to move forward, save at a walk, I turned in my saddle to watch him. ”

“ Still a third cause is unsoundness of the hocks, curb, and spavin. For these a veterinarian will have to be consulted. In general, when everything about the horse is all right, it will take the contact when sent against the bit. But if anything is wrong, it will refuse contact and beat against the rider's hand. ”

“ But if the animal is allowed to stop, then any action of its legs is open to it, and it can lie down as easily as it can buck-jump.
THE HORSE WHICH BURIES ITSELF
SOME horses are by nature restive and violent, so that they do not respond to kindness until after they have been tamed by energetic treatment. This native excess of bad temper leads such animals to try every means of escape from the rider's domination; and before they finally submit, they sometimes, as a last effort, set their four limbs immovably so that no sort of persuasion can make them stir. ”

“ He carried them, as represented in the engraving, arranged in a partitioned frame on his shoulder, and to each horse’s head was a small flag with two bills attached. The crier and his ware are wholly extinct. Now-a-days we give a boy the first stick at hand to thrust between his legs as a Bucephalus—the shadow of a shade:—our forefathers were better natured, for they presented him with something of the semblance of the generous animal. Is a horse now less popular with boys than then? ”

“ I could hear your Buckskin snorting to beat the band, and pawing just like he does when he's worried. Reckon they didn't know what to make of it, either, seeing that there's nary a sign of a storm cloud around. But both horses have quieted down again. They think all danger of a howler has passed away."
Frank made no reply. He was already getting ready to resume his interrupted nap; and Bob lost no time in following his example, both confident that in the alert Buckskin they had a sentry capable of giving ample warning should peril threaten. ”

“ Whether this state of anxiety and contraction is treated properly or improperly determines in large measure the future temper of the mount. The well-disposed animal will always be ready to obey as soon as it understands what the rider wants of it. Moreover, until the horse begins to contract itself, it cannot resist. But this contraction is easily detected by the rider, through his seat, legs, and hand. If the rider is inexperienced, he tries to counteract this while the horse is in motion. The abler rider, on the other hand, immediately stops the horse and relieves the contraction. ”

“ Bucking is one of the ways a wild horse seeks to get rid of his rider, and it takes a man of great skill to keep on the back of a bucking horse. Lowering its head between its fore-legs, it gives [78] a wild leap upwards and comes down with a smash of its hoofs on the ground. The man that can keep in the saddle through two or three of these jumps must make himself part of the horse.
The men who do this are splendid riders, and the cowboys of the plains, who have to take care of the great herds of cattle, almost live on horseback. ”

“ There are, however, two sorts of piaffer, the slow and the quick. There is also still another kind, that exhibited by a horse which, through excitement, excess of energy, or nervous temperament, cannot stand still. If, then, the rider does not permit the animal to go forward, it prances impatiently on the same spot. Such a mount is annoying and even dangerous to an inexperienced horseman; so that the fault needs to be corrected by a moderate and progressive training, in which the chief difficulty is to stop the creature and to keep it still. ”

“ If, however, the horse, at the attack, backs or refuses to go forward, then the tempo of the application of the spurs is increased, until such time as the horse advances, always upon the hand, with the bit in contact with the bars. If the horse drops its head when spurred, the rider takes the snaffle in one hand and lifts the head with the snaffle, never with the bit. The attack is completely successful when the horse's head and neck go steadily upward and forward upon the hand of the rider, the face nearly perpendicular to the ground and the lower jaw open. ”

“ The animal escapes the contact of the bit. It keeps its mouth closed, holds its neck rigid and usually extends it forward, while by carrying the head low, it neutralizes the effects of the bridle. The hind legs are not together, but one of them is too much under the body while the other is extended too far to the rear and does not support its share of the weight. Commonly, the horse stops of its own will, and refuses to advance or to change its position at the ordinary effects. The rider feels as if he were mounted upon an unsteady wooden horse. ”

“ When they fall off they simply get on again. They seldom or never are hurt. They are hard as nails and lissom as cats. Dr. Croly, of Dugort, saw a girl thrown heels over head, turning a complete somersault from the horse's back. She alighted on her feet, grabbed the rein, bounded up again, and gaily galloped away. During my hundred miles riding and walking over the island I saw many riderless horses, fully accoutred in the Achil style, plodding patiently along the moorland roads, climbing the steep mountain paths. ”

“ It is at the act of mounting that the horse first feels the ability of the rider, her confidence, and her skill. Baucher and Fillis always trained their horses before letting them be mounted by their women pupils. I myself often let mine begin with horses that have been merely broken ”

“ In either case, the rider must be able to use the lower leg, without stiffness, in managing the horse.
It is often said that the heels ought always to be lower than the toes. This, however, seems to be nothing more than an ancient prejudice of cavalrymen, who see nothing but general appearance and cling to dear old routine. If only the knees do not come up too high on the saddle, and the feet are not too much turned out so as to spur the horse unwittingly, one may wear his stirrups as he likes. In fact, one need not use stirrups at all. ”