The
Californian saddle is, I venture to assert, the best that has been
invented, for the horse and the rider. Seated in one of these, it is
scarcely possible to be unseated by any ordinary casualty. The
bridle-bit is clumsily made, but so constructed that the horse is
compelled to obey the rider upon the slightest intimation. The spurs
are of immense size, but they answer to an experienced horseman the
double purpose of exciting the horse, and of maintaining the rider in
his seat under difficult circumstances.
For the pleasures of the table they care but little. With his horse and
trappings, his sarape and blanket, a piece of beef and a _tortilla_,
the Californian is content, so far as his personal comforts are
concerned. But he is ardent in his pursuit of amusement and pleasure,
and these consist chiefly in the fandango, the game of monte,
horse-racing, and bull and bear-baiting. They gamble freely and
desperately, but pay their losses with the most strict punctuality, at
any and every sacrifice, and manifest but little concern about them.
They are obedient to their magistrates, and in all disputed cases
decided by them, acquiesce without uttering a word of complaint.
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