The cow pony is worthy of as much attention and thought as the cowboy.
It is often said that the latter is hard and cruel, and that he uses his
pony roughly. This is far from being correct. Between the cowboy and his
pet pony there is generally a bond of sympathy and a thorough
understanding, without which the marvelous feats of horsemanship which
are performed daily would be impossible. Perhaps in the preliminary
breaking in of the pony there is more roughness than is quite necessary.
At the same time, it should be remembered that to subdue an animal which
was born on the prairie and has run wild to its heart's content, is not
a very simple matter. The habit of bucking, which a Texas pony seems to
inherit from its ancestors, is a very inconvenient one, and an expert
rider from the East is perfectly helpless upon the back of a bucking
pony. The way in which he mounts assures the animal at once that he is a
stranger in those parts. A natural desire to unseat the daring stranger
becomes paramount, and the pony proceeds to carry out the idea.

At first it moves quietly and the rider congratulates himself on having
convinced the animal that resistance will be ill vain. But just as he
begins to do this the animal gets down its head, arches up its back,
something after the manner of an angry cat, leaps into the air and comes
down on the ground with its four legs drawn together under it, perfectly
stiff and straight. The rider seldom knows how it happened. He only
knows that it felt as though a cannon ball had struck him, and that he
fell off most ungracefully.

A pony never bucks viciously when a cowboy is riding it. It has learned
by long experience that the process is distinctly unprofitable. Breaking
in a pony and convincing it that the way of the transgressor is hard, is
one of the difficulties of prairie life. When, however, it is once
accomplished, an almost invaluable assistant has been secured. The
staying powers of the cow pony are almost without limit. He will carry
his master 100 miles in a day, apparently with very little fatigue. In
point of speed he may not be able to compete with his better bred
Eastern cousin, but in point of distance covered he entirely outclasses
him. Assuming an easy gait within its powers of endurance, a pony of the
prairie will keep it up almost indefinitely. At the end of a very long
ride, the man is generally more fatigued than his steed. The latter,
after being relieved of its sadd