Gradually we learned to gallop through the woods without roads of any
sort, bareback and without rope or bridle, guiding only by leaning
from side to side or by slight knee pressure. In this free way we used
to amuse ourselves, riding at full speed across a big "kettle" that
was on our farm, without holding on by either mane or tail.
These so-called "kettles" were formed by the melting of large detached
blocks of ice that had been buried in moraine material thousands of
years ago when the ice-sheet that covered all this region was
receding. As the buried ice melted, of course the moraine material
above and about it fell in, forming hopper-shaped hollows, while the
grass growing on their sides and around them prevented the rain and
wind from filling them up. The one we performed in was perhaps seventy
or eighty feet wide and twenty or thirty feet deep; and without a
saddle or hold of any kind it was not easy to keep from slipping over
Jack's head in diving into it, or over his tail climbing out. This was
fine sport on the long summer Sundays when we were able to steal away
before meeting-time without being seen.
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