Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/217

204 ,204 JPHE SBCpET C>P mjXlJUG, Sepiety's .QOllectioQ' (one^ql thi^, finest ia,the XJ^to^r Btat€!i^~) th,er^ is a borse. ish^e ma^e of r^^fh^j^g, l^Jiil?^ ^as .Bse4 by S'li Ijjdian on his ppny? The shpe shqwf signs of, mucli serviiW!. i.^npthej! ipxportant thing, to il&siso'siQind was Ms girths, forihey must bev.absp-. IlDttely'tialiable: so every stitcfeand buckle was tested^ and if anydoubt, was 'Strengthened. One point i that- 'WOoM oonMnually come to his mind was the Jaf^fa^s of liis armor, for he realized that should a tilt ecwi« BJ) ajgainst rt, the possibility was that he would. get iigured. So he resolvefs to resort to expert tactics, trustitig to the maucn"ering of' Ms steed to k^p him 'otitbf arm's way. Although there is only two days j id 'which to prepare, yet every advantage was taken day Alonso would ride away froni camp with only Monte and Ysopete with him, and when out of . sight would then give hi^ horse some'pretty! severe tests in turning iquicMy, stopping the imStant i called upon, and most itnportanl, to have the animal rehearse the oft-practiced knaok of responding to the sway of the body of- his master, as well as to the peculiar motion or pressure of the legs, but which can only be under- stood by going through a series: of years of horseback rldiag. No doubt you have heard how the Arabs train their; horses to respond to this inexphcable manner of directing a horse by the motion of its rid- er's body instead of with the bridle; perhaps the western cowboys got their first lessons in horseman- ship from the Bedouins, but this is doubted, for, by intuition this peculiar manner of guiding a horse comes with practice. If a man or boy reads this who
 * of the interval to exercise his horse: so three times a