Pedro de Valdivia

When he was five the alms man saw his first hobbling; a seven-hand gilding brought down with a grass scythe, the man standing over the horse moving his jaw back and forth like a gristmill. The stables at Montalto billeted horses that were past their prime; glue horses and nags, Abyssinian Akhal-Teke's and Albanian Altai’s, American Albino and Castilian Andalusian’s, Russian Andravida’s and Anglo-Kabarda Appaloosa’s, AraAppaloosa's and Godolphin Arabian’s, De Bello Gallico’s, favored by Caesar, Argentine Criollo's and Spanish Asturcon’s, Australian Brumby’s, Mexican Azteca Majorca’s and Balearic Baluchistan's, Japanese Ban-ei Maghreb Barb’s and Bashkir Volga’s, Bashkir Curly Belgian stallion’s and Schwarzwälder Fuchs’, also known as Schwarzwälder Kaltblut’s and St. Märgener’s, Wälderpferd Riebeeck Boerperd’s and Bidet Breton’s, Soviet Budyonny Byelorussian’s (used for plowing and meat) and Arabian Camargue’s, Brazilian Campolina Don Picado’s and Carthusian Oriental Caspian’s, Korean Cheju’s and Chilean Corralero’s (arriving with the Spanish conqueror Pedro de Valdivia in 1541) Cleveland Bay Lanarkshire’s and Clydesdale’s, Uruguayan Criollo’s and Bulgarian bay Danube’s, Kazakh Deliboz’s and Nigerian Djerma’s, Gudbrandsdal valley Døle’s and Eritrean Dongalawi’s, Dutch Draft horses and Dutch Warmblood’s (on the skirt below the pommel was written, ‘i am a roofer and now i have a lump on my knuckle and it is soft’, the rosin bleeding into the stirrup leather). Uffugo Calabria, the head stableman, secured the halter and slung the rope over the block and tackle, catching the end of the rope in his left hand, the stable boy waiting for the okay to kick free the sluice-gate.