Page:The Tourist's California by Wood, Ruth Kedzie.djvu/102

 78 THE TOURIST'S CALIFORNIA race between Los Angeles and Phoenix, Arizona, is an annual endurance test. The Sport of Kings has of late years in Cali- fornia been checked by republican legislators, though this State claims pre-eminence as the birth- place of fast horses because of the exceptional fodder available at all seasons, and the oppor- tunity the climate affords for open-air exercise. The Spanish mustang was taken to Florida by De Soto and into Mexico by Cortez and his fol- lowers, and introduced later into California by the soldiers and friars who, when they did not walk, were dependent upon the enduring beasts for transportation between the widely separated ranches, presidios, and towns. Without the cayuse, we are reminded, the Spaniards could not have explored so great a tract ; horses, therefore, entered largely into the civilising of California. Once they used to run wild, " common as hares." Fremont in his Geographical Memoir upon Upper California, speaks of starting up a band of mus- tangs running loose on the plains of Stanislaus Valley in the winter of 1843-44. Bayard Taylor mentions a piebald belonging to Col. Fremont upon which he used to ride from San Jose to San Fran- cisco, 55 miles away, in seven hours. To Los Angeles, caravans of merchants used to come from Santa Fe to buy horses, exchanging woollen stuffs and blankets, " two blankets for each horse."