weights, making distance, enduring without deterioration
hard climbs in high altitudes; what they can or cannot
get over in the way of bad places. This last is not
always a matter of appearance merely. Some bits of trail,
seeming impassable to anything but a goat, a Western
horse will negotiate easily; while others, not
particularly terrifying in appearance, offer
complications of abrupt turn or a single bit of unstable,
leg-breaking footing which renders them exceedingly
dangerous. You must, moreover, be able to manage your
animals to the best advantage in such bad places. Of
course you must in the beginning have been wise as to
the selection of the horses.

Fourth, you must know good horse-feed when
you see it. Your animals are depending entirely on
the country; for of course you are carrying no dry
feed for them. Their pasturage will present itself
under a variety of aspects, all of which you must
recognize with certainty. Some of the greenest,
lushest, most satisfying-looking meadows grow nothing
but water-grasses of large bulk but small nutrition;
while apparently barren tracts often conceal small but
strong growths of great value. You must differentiate these.

Fifth, you must possess the ability to pare a hoof,
fit a shoe cold, nail it in place. A bare hoof does not
last long on the granite, and you are far from the
nearest blacksmith. Directly in line with this, you
must have the trick of picking up and holding a