"Might call 'em that," assented Sam with a smile.

"Can't nobody ride em?" went on Snake.

"Th' last man what did has a broken leg on one side, an' a lot of skin
chawed off on th' other," answered the foreman grimly.

"Whoopee!" yelled Snake, "I'll ride 'em! I'll fan 'em! Wow! Now for
some fun!"

"Fun!" exclaimed Dick, who knew what was in prospect. "Oh, boy!" he
added to his brother, "now for some rough riding!"

CHAPTER XII

AFTER THE RUSTLERS

"Rough riding," as it is called, made up more than half the fun the
cowboys indulged in among themselves. There has, of late years, been
so much of this done in public, in traveling "wild west" shows, and in
exhibitions of some features of the _rodeo_ in New York and other large
cities, that I believe most of you are familiar with the feats of
cowboys on these trained and untrained "broncks," or outlaw
horses--"mankillers" some of them are dubbed.

I might say that there are two classes of this rough riding. One is
the real thing, on horses or cow ponies that are naturally bad, and
never can be broken or trained to behave. The other is on what might
be called "professional buckers." That is, horses which have trained
to try and unseat their riders as long as they are expected to do this.

I venture to say most of you have seen exhibitions of rough riding in a
wild west, traveling show, or in some _rodeo_, as an imitation round-up
is called after its Spanish title. And most of you, I believe, have
been impressed with the fact that as soon as the man got off the back
of the bucking steed the said steed became as gentle as a lamb. This
is what those that are trained to it do purposely, but it is not what a
real dyed-in-the-wool outlaw does. For he does not let up in his
attack on the man even after the latter is out of the saddle.

Perhaps some of you, at a rodeo, have seen a rider come bursting out of
the pen on the back of a rearing, bucking, leaping steed. After the
first burst two cowboys would ride up, one on either side of the
bucker, and take off, on their own stirrups or saddle the fearless
rider. And then the so-called "outlaw" would let himself be led meekly
back into the pen to be ready for the next performance, when it would
all be gone through with again.

But occasionally you may have seen one of these horses lash out
viciously with his heels, in an endeavor to kick anyone he could reach,
not even excluding his fellow steeds. This i