ESSAY ON BRONCHOS
PRAISE FOR A GENTLE AND
PICTURESQUE ANIMAL
In Certain Fundamental Respects the
Broncho Is Like the Poet - Strikingly
Original in Many of His Ways, as the
Tenderfoot Learns - He Is Untiring as
a Windmillm and Ambitions, Withal
The broncho, like the poet, is born, not
made. The ingenuity of man has been carried
to great lengths in many directions, but
no inventor has yet developed such reckless
disregard for the proprieties and his own
safety as to squander any time in an attempt
to make a broncho. The similarity
between poets and bronchos may possibly
be a delicate subject to discuss in the hearing
of the former, but no person could be so
utterly lacking in ordinary politeness as to
refer to it while within reaching distance
of a broncho.
A broncho in a cheerful mood looks so much
like an instantaneous photograph of a thoroughbred
in a great hurry that skeptical
persons might be excused for not believing
that a well-bred horse could, under any
circumstances, no matter how great the
pressure or how large the stakes, have
spurned the earth at his four corners at one
and the same moment.
The broncho has much to answer for, or
would have, if he cared, says the Pall Mall
Budget. For centuries mankind believed
that the horse, when going at full speed,
presented a picture of physical beauty that
nothing on four legs could surpass. Early
artists depicted nim as a general thing in a
stationary mood or, at best, going at a pace
suitable for children, old ladies, or gentlemen
heavily encased in iron. To look at
some of these remains is to force the observer
to one of two conclusions-either
that the artists of those days were indifferent
stonemasons, or that the horse of the
period, while he may have been the best
friend of man, could not by any stretch of
courtesy be considered at all superior to
even the least meritorious of the chefs
d'oeuvres that adorn the exterior of many
country "pubs " to-day.
Century after century passed away. With
the passage of time and the diminution in
the weight of armor, the horse probably improved;
the artist certainly did, yet the
animal painter still insisted upon making
the horse look his best while ie was going
his fastest pace. With pictures which show
his forelegs extended on a line with his head
and his hind legs on a line with his tail the
walls of our houses are covered to-day.
They are satisfying. for they create the impression
that the horse is determined to be
first at the post or burst a blood vessel. How
long this pictured belief would have remained
undisturbed but for the photographer
and the broncho need not be revealed
at present.
It is altogether probable that the photographer
alone would have been unable to
destroy an illusion that had withstood the
wear and tear of centuries. How would
have been laughed at and discredited, for
the photographer who will convert his
studio into a warehouse for unsalable
goods is a scarce article. All would have
been well, except for the broncho. To see
a broncho enjoying himself is to know that
the instantaneous photographer is voracious
to the point of artlessness.
A broncho may be transplanted at almost
any season, and to almost any clime, without
injury to his prominent characteristics.
He is at home anywhere, and is never so
nervous in strange.conpany as the latter is
in his. For an animal of his size he can
stand on one spot and cover more space and
in less time, and, apparently, without premeditation,
than any other member of the
animal kingdom. His closest competitor in
this respect is the mule.
Bronchos and Mules
A combination windmill and threshing
machine performance between a broncho
and mule is something never to be forgotten
by those who escape. The broncho looks
down on the mule when he is on high
ground. Nothing possessed of sense looks
down on the broncho, no matter what the
topographical character of the country may
be. He is a keon judge of character, and
resents the slightest appr4ch to familiarity
except from those by whom he has been
conquered, for a broncho, unlike an Englishman,
knows when he have had enough.
The number of: tenderfeet" who have left
this world hurriedly through their ignorance
of the most elementary rules governing
the intercourse between strangers and
bronchos is too large to find more than passing
mention in these pages; but if each of
them was somebody's darling there must
have been periods in recent decades
when the market showed a marked scarcity
of darlings.
The broncho is of two nationalities. One
possesses a more or less superficial knowledge
of a mosaic of Spanish, Portuguese and
Indian. The other understands a brand of
English that is too picturesque and robust
for an ordinary dwelling; it flourishes best
in the open air, and where it is not possible
to throw a brick without hitting the
wearer of a military title. The last mentioned
brand is found in the breech-clout
condition in the southwestern part of North
America; the former in such parts of Central
and South America. as possess more
room than anything else, except revolutions.
Certain Volcanlo Characteristics
An unbroken broncho of either of the varieties
mentioned is the nearest approach
that can be found in the animal kingdom to
a volcano of the first-class that is in a state
of active and continual eruption. He can
break out in more unexpected places and
with greater freedom, and, given an equal
chance, with more lasting effect than a
highly-developed case of scarlet rash.
A broken broncho differs in a few particulars
from his unbroken brother. There is
more originality about him. The untamed
specimen will waste tons of energy in kicking
holes in the atmosphere. The civilized
broncho seldom does this; never, one might
say, unless he has missed his mark and is
trying again. With an amount of care, foresight,
and patience that speaks volumes for
the painstaking character of the teacher
and for his own intelligence, the civilized
broncho will wait for hours, sometimes for
days, to secure an opportunity for planting
both hind feet into something more tangible,
yet more sensitive, than the atmosphere.
Other animals will answer his purpose at a
pinch, but for regular target practice, he
prefers men. Women and children he will
never molest, if they keep out of range.
Few animals thrive while traveling. The
broncho does. Set him the apparently impossible
to do and ho will do it or break a
leg. Not long ago fifty bronchos arrived in
Liverpool, .and were shipped to various
parts of the country. The brochos
had been traveling for twenty-three days.
A week of this time was spent in railway
trains. During the land journey there was
nothing to kick except the sides and ends of
the railway trucks in which they were imprisoned,
and their own sides and ends.
At the end of a week they were transferred
from the railway trucks to an ocean steamship.
They were not transferred without
difficulty, most of them manifesting a desire
to secure more than a fleeting glance at
New York City bəfore they were immured
on the lower deck of an Atlantic liner
When placed on board ship they were in
good condition.
Always Cheerful and Agile
Their overland journey had apparently
only increased their spirits. After sixteen
days on shipboard they reached Liverpool.
As they stepped ashore they seemed as well
as if they had sailed before the mast all
their lives. A colt is generally used as an
illustration for extreme friskiness. In comparison
with these much-traveled bronchos
a colt is of leaden temperament and sluggish
action. They showed a desire to make
up for lost time, and the men who bought
them had no reason to think that the ir purchases
wore not wiry as well as fery, even
if they were not robust.
The art of transforming bronchos into
English cobs is only of recent discovery
but for several years it has been prosecuted
with considerable vigor in several parts of
the British Isles. The first thing to be
done is to break the broncho, according
to English rules. He has already been broken
to suit a gaucho or a cowboy: but, as
the action of an English cob would not suit
either a gaucho or a cowboy, it is necessary
to break the broncho a second time before
it can be said that his education as an
English cob has had a beginning. He naturally
resents this. Having been broken
once by a man whom he could not shake
off, and who rode him until he had not
enough breath to blow a mosquito off his
whiskers, the broncho feels it irksome to be
broken with a nicety of detail which is altogether
foreign to his nature, and which
he feels is a studied insult to the Republican
principles which he imbibed at a period
when his teeth were soft and his legs were
shaky, However, men who are engaged in
the pastime of changing bronchos into
Engish cobs possess strength as well as
patience, and, although their calling is
studded with risks, they usually succeed in
attaining their ends.
Fattening a Broncho
A broncho having been so thoroughly
broken that a rough rider can, with the
assistance of a half-dozen stable men
mount him, his owner proceeds to fatten
him. This process takes a good deal of
time, and a great deal of nourishment. As
a thin man generally eats more than a fat
man, so a broncho who has been accustomed
to forage for himself can eat, several times
as much as a horse that has been reared in
the lap of plenty, and he can do so without
showing any signs of having done it.
Then he begins to fill out if fed constantly
and in large quantities. To prevent his ribs
becoming prominent again it is necessary
to confine his exercise to the smallest
possible limits. This has its drawbacks,
for lack of exercise makes
him feel that he needs it and must
have it, so that previous to a sale it is necessary
to ride him hard that he may look
sufficiently demure to be mistaken for an
English cob. Even in that condition it is
not considered safe, by good judges to pick
up either of his hind legs in order to examine
his hoofs. It had better be taken for
granted that these are in perfect condition,
as they usually are, for even thoroughly
broken bronchos have been known to resent
anything of the sort, just as if they believed
it to be a deliberate slight which
could only be wiped out with a blow that
would lift the would-be purchaser into the
adjoining county.
