Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/226

WESTERN INDIANS FIKST RIDimaS. ^13 racer, but heiiappens to have one of those claes of horses which is not comf6rtai)le for even a good horseman to ride, especially bareback, as the saying is: '*He came down like a thousand of bricks, arid the rider works Ms passage," which signifies that he is a hard rider, for every time his forefeet come down when on a gallop it gives his rider a jerk, which fairly shakes raie's insides out of place, and when it trots^ — well, to ride such ahorse bareback would cause the individual to lose considerable hide froiri an unmen- tionable spot in his body, taking quite a time to be free from the reminding sensation every time he book a stride with either limb. The antics of this last contestant cannot be described, bet it can truth- fully be stated that, although he did not win the race, yet he showed the stuff he was made of; he had caught on to the trick of catching the. mane, and with the agility of an Indian he amused the people by fall- ing ofE, then with a spring getting back, so it caused more eclat than anything; but our young Pawnee was about the only one that got fairly back to the starting point. Without doubt the Coronado expedition was the direct cause of the Indians of the plains bfecoming the first possessors of the horse, and thus long before the more easterly tribes had any knowledge of the benefits to be derived therefrom, and the trip of the indefatigable Spaniards 367 years ago, with the great number of horses and mares, many of which the pro- fchonotaries of the expedition admit as having gotten away and never being seen again. Authorities on horses state that it was in the reign of Henry VII. of