VOCAB LIST 6: A
DEFINING IN CONTEXT
1. When a Spanish explorer came to America, his most important accessory was his riding gear.
The equipment allowed him to ride his horse. The famous mustangs and the beautiful paint
ponies of the West are descended from horses brought by the Spanish.
2. The compact, well-balanced Spanish horses traveled deep into the western interior of the
continent, the land of such animals as the badger and the antelope.
3. Historians can make calculations about when the Plains Indians began to use horses – most
agree it was around 1600. However, historians may never be able to estimate how much horses
changed the Plains Indians’ lives.
4. Horses were the perfect complement to the Plains Indians’ needs. They used horses to hunt
buffalo and to fight battles more successfully.
5. Tribe after tribe became a willing convert to the improvements that the horse allowed. They
changed their ways of living and eagerly sought more horses.
6. Because horses made traveling much easier, trade increased. It became customary for the Plains
people to trade with peoples in the West. Thus, it became common to see a Nez Perce horse
wearing a Crow collar and bridle.
7. The Cayuse, the Shoshone, the Flathead, and the Nez Perce showed their pride in their horses
by decorating them with trappings worthy of hanging in an art gallery.
8. On magnificent saddle bags, black geometric designs intervene, or come between, bands of red.
Beaded stirrups, especially on women’s mounts, were often hung with pendants.
9. War horses were brilliantly draped and masked like steeds of the medieval knights of Europe. A
horse might bear colorfully painted images showing its own feats of valor, or bravery.
10. A horse might be painted with symbols of vitality in the hope that such symbols would add to
the horse’s strength. It is this image of painted horse and rider dressed in splendor that will
charge on through the imaginations of generations.