MEXICAN RIDING. (Mercury's Magazine.)

Otago Witness, Issue 1917, 17 August 1888, Page 26

MEXICAN RIDING. (Mercury's Magazine.)

The great feature of all Mexican riding is the looseness of their seat. It; is all done by balance. And when I say " all " it means a wonderful deal. I have seen a Mexican named Louis — to be sure he was accredited with being the ,best rider out there, and for my part I cannot conceive that there can be a better in the world — I have seen that man cross his legs over the horn of the big Mexican saddle, and throwing the reins on the neck of the horse, calmly roll a cigarette while the horse bucked up and down with him. I know it is asking a great deal to expect credence for such a story as this; but yet, when we consider the pitch of perfection reached by circus riders among our own couatrymen, the very much higher degree of excellence attained by one remarkable man out of a nation whose members we may say were almost born on horseback, is not so beyond the prospect of belief — though there is of course au enormous difference between riding the trained things in the circus and the mustang caught wild upon the prairie. The Mexican saddle with its great stirrups and the horn on which the lassoo hangs, gives, of course, very many good points d'appui ; but the performances of these Mexicans on horseback are wmrWfnl enough. You bsg a herd of wilrl hof&ea driven through the .narrow pass of the corral. Your Mexican, with a hair rope in his hand, will drop from the beam above upon the back of the horse it is wished to reclaim to domestic uses. In an instant he is away, snorting, bellowing, positively ■ shrieking with terror, in the midst of . the thundering stampede of bis fellows, who are scarce less terrified than he. He cannot buck while the herd pressed closely upon him. The Mexican leans forward with the rope in both hands, passes it over the horse's head into the wide, open mouth, and forces it behind his teeth. Then he takes a turn with it under his lower jaw, and there he has him bitted and bridled. After a little over half an hour he comes back with him broken, not " so that a child could ride him," but so that a Mexican can. Of course they are small horses. I cannot say how the Mexicans would fare with one of those big Australian buckers. They maintain, however, that this loose seat of theirs does not irritate a horse in the way a grip with the knee does ; and this I fully believe. Further than that, I fancy the solution of the mystery about those horses which will go quietly with a lady, though a man can hardly ride them, is to be sought as rather in the method of the lady's seat than, as is commonly thought, in the superior delicacy of her fair hands.