25th November 1833

Mercedes on the River Negro
We heard of some giants bones, which as usual turned out to be those of the Megatherium. With much trouble extracted a few broken fragments. In the evening a domidor or horse-breaker came to the house & I saw the operation of mounting a perfectly wild horse. They were too fat to fight much: and there was little to see in the operation; the horse is thrown down & the bridle is tied to the under jaw: tying the hind legs together he is allowed to rise & is then saddled.

During these operations the horse throws himself down so repeatedly & is so beaten, that when his legs are loosed and the man mounts him, he is so terrified as hardly to be able to breathe, & is trickling down with sweat. Generally however, a horse fights for a few minutes desperately, then starts away at a gallop, which is continued till the animal is quite exhausted. This is a very severe but short way of breaking in a colt.

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