Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/63

52 52 A GELDING. To give a aescription of this animal so as to meet the views of the average admirer of a horse, would be a useless task, as some horsemen admire a cream- colored, glass-eyed, Arabian-nosed animal; others a buckskin, believing that that color denotes as "tougli as buckskin"; then again, a sorrel is the ideal; with others a black; some Mke a piebald or grey; but onr young hero had selected a dark dappled bay with black points, i. e., black mane and tail and black legs, which at the advice of the Moorish chief had been converted into a gelding. It must be borne in mind that at the time we are writing, horses were not as large as now, and so eleven hundred pounds in those days was above the average; but even now that weight horse, if hot too heavy set, is the most likely nag to stand a long ride and keep it up day after day. No man or woman has any conception of the attach- ment, yea love, which one will have for a beautiful piece of horse-ilesh, except those who'*have been in the saddle a great deal. The assertion is here made that to back a spirited horse and rMe fast is the most glorious exercise known to man. Ask any man or lady who has had the experience and ninety-nine per cent will tell you of the peculiar sensation of pleasure which will thrill a horseman or horsewoman. Of course, should one unaccustomed to riding, attempt to straddle a desirable riding horse, he would feel hke a man in deep water who could not swim, and oven persons who may have ridden thousands of miles, yet should they cease for a few years to ride, would not be as comfortable on a horse until tiioy hiul ijocome used to the saddle. This theme is