PAMPAS HORSEMEN.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3106, 11 June 1892, Page 1 (Supplement)

PAMPAS HORSEMEN.

Mb W. H. Hudson, in a work on the La Plata (a ranohiro, boru on the Pampas himself) says that riding entails—to such horsemen is thos'e of South America—no exertion whatever. Unlike walking, it does not demand a care for every footfall, and therefore leaves the mind free to think of what is going on around. There is no tax on the understanding, the rythmic motion, the sensation as of flight acts on the brain like a stimulus. " That anyone should !)e able to think better lying. Bitting, or standing, thau when speeding alone on horseback i.t to me incomprehensible. Tin's is doubtless due to early training and long usu ; for on those "iv-at pamp.is where I tint saw the light, and was taught at a tender age to ride, we came to look on man as a parasitical croature fitted by nature to occupy the back of a horse, in which position only he has full and free use of all his faculties. Possibly the gaucho is born with this idea in his brain ; if so, it would only be reasonable to suppose that its correlation exists in a modification of structure. Certain it is that an intoxicated gaucho lifted on to tho back of his horse is perfectly safe in his scat. The horse may do his best to rid himself of his burden; the riders' legs.or posterior arms, as they might appropriately be called retain their iron grip, notwithstanding the fuddled brain. The gaucho is more or less bow-legged, and, of course, the more crooked his legs are the better for him in his struggle for existence. Off his horse his motions are awkward ; ho waddles in his walk ; his hands feel for the reins ; his toes turn inwards like a duck's." An Indian will die on horseback ; a gaucho will certainly sleep half the night through in the same po.-ition, and we are told by our author, that provided the steed ia surefooted, and the horseman not distrustful of his powers, there is no pleasanter way of travelling after dark than lying on his back, legs the horse's neck, and watching the round twinkling stars in the clear southern sky. ______————