The latter nodded. "Not when they are going at their best pace. They haven't time to do it then, but when they are going at hand-gallop they will do it. They wait until you are off your guard, and then up they go in the air and come down perhaps three yards sideways, and it's fifty to one against your being on their back when they do come down."
"I see how it is done now, though I don't see how I can do it," Hugh said. "But I will try again."
"THE NEXT JUMP THREW HIM FAIRLY OVER THE HORSE'S HEAD."
The horse was led out, and Hugh again mounted. This time he was prepared for what was to come, but in spite of the grip with his legs the blow lifted him far above the saddle. It seemed to him that the next buck came before he had fairly descended, for it struck him with the force and suddenness of an electric shock. Again and again he was thrown up, until he felt his balance going, and the next jump threw him fairly over the horse's head, but as he was prepared for the fall it was much less heavy than the first time.
"Well done! well done!" several of the cow-boys said as he rose to his feet. "You will do, you will, and make a good rider before long. That will do for to-day; I would not try any more."
"I am going to try it until I can sit him," Hugh said. "I have got to do it, and I may as well go on now before I get stiff."
The broncho-breaker came up to him as, after waiting a minute or two to get his breath, he again prepared to mount.
"Don't keep your back so stiff, young fellow. Just let your back go as if there was no bones in it. I have known a man's spine broke before now by a bucker. Sit easy and lissom. Keep your head, that is the principal thing. It ain't easy when you are being pitched up and down like a ball, but it all turns upon that. Let your legs close on him tight each time you come down, if only for a moment, that saves you from being thrown clean away from him."