Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 May 1884 — Breaking a Mustang. [ARTICLE]

Breaking a Mustang.

Iu an entfe'rtaiuing paper in the St. Nicholas, entitled “Among the Mustangs,” Noah Brooks gives the following grn.pl lie, account of the methods of capturing and breaking the wild horse of the prairies: “Riding at full speed, the Mexicans Career over the plains like •wild men, whirling their coiled lariats, or lassos, over their heads as 'they fly. Their horses are Covered with foam, and ofteu bleeding from the cruel spurs with which they are urged on. The earth trembles under the tramp of many hoofs beating the Bolid ground, as pursuer and pursued gallop madly far and wide. Suddenly the lariat siDgs through the air, its noose opens itself and drops ovcrtlie head of a terrified fugitive, the hunter’s steed instantly braces it self .with itjforefeet aiid,drops: on its liaundies, so as to make an anchorage, as it were, for the caught -mustang. And there is go escape now for the captive. “ “The hunter next blinds his prize, takes a turn of the lariat around its forelegs, forces a heavy bit into its rn'puth, and at once begins to ‘break’ it to the saddle. How do you suppose the poor mustang feels when it finds itself saddled, bridled, and straddled by a tyrant man? In vain it ‘jumps stiff-logged/ plupgea, and ‘ kicks.’ No in tf.fi world has so many tricks and antics as a newly captured wild horse; but man, its conqueror, is equal to all of these. In a few hours the poor beast, so lately a free and careless creature, a wild rover of the boundless plains, is reduced to abject subjection. Its spirit is broken, and, though it may still retain* some of its native vicious-□

: i ness, it is the slave of its owner. Henceforth it never forgets the lasso.. It kbows and dreads the sight of one; and, if it escapes, there is very little difficulty in catching it again. But its rider, too, must never forget that the hapless captive is only half-taraed. He must watch it narrowly, for oftsn afterward, when he least suspects such insubmission, the steed he rides will try to throw him, and will struggle under the saddle as if it were but newly snared.”