This drawing epitomizes the acme of Cheyenne riding style, which deeply impressed and even overawed every military man who observed it. Col. Richard Dodge reported admiringly:

"Having never seen the riding of Arabs, Turkomen, Cossacks and other world-renowned riders, I cannot say how the Indian compares with them, but I am satisfied he is too nearly a centaur to be surpassed by any...

"[He] will perform feats of horsemanship actually incredible to one who has seen only civilized riding. With his horse at full speed, he will pick up from the ground a small piece of coin. He will throw himself on the side of his horse, in such a position that only a small portion of an arm and a leg can be seen from the other side" (Dodge, 1882: 337 & 340).

Even George Custer acknowledged:

"The Indian warrior is capable of assuming positions on his pony...at full speed, which no one but an Indian could maintain for a single moment without being thrown to the ground. The pony...is perfectly trained, and seems possessed of the spirit of his rider" (Custer, 1874: 252).

These brilliant skills were the result of dogged practice from the earliest age. During much of the summer of 1883, the young Hubert E. Collins observed his twenty-year-old friend, a son of Bear Robe, schooling himself and his mount:

"...he was engrossed in perfecting himself in horsemanship...He would spend hours...on the plain...leaping from the pony's back to the ground, first on one side, then on the other. Again he would race along the ground afoot and leap upon the pony's back while it was at full gallop, never touching it for assistance. He used to place a rawhide rope around the animal's barrel, and practice hanging from the side as the animal ran at full speed. As they raced he would hang low on one side, then change to the other" (Collins, 1928: 199).

By the time the average Cheyenne male was twenty, he had acquired gymnastic skills in combination with his trained horse which allowed him almost literally to fly. There is hardly a commentator in the 19th century---whether friend or bitter enemy---who was not stunned into awed respect by the Cheyennes' finesse on horseback.

These abilities translated not only into survival and superiority in combat, but also during the rigors of the chase, when accidental falls---of the type shown by Arrow in Plates 32, 78 & 168---might happen at any moment.

"Big Ribs, when chasing buffalo on one occasion, sprang from his horse to the back of a bull, and while riding it, cut out a kidney through the flank. This was done about the year 1870, and merely as an act of bravado---to show what he could do" (Grinnell, 1923, I: 264).

Here, Arrow shows himself indulging in similar bravado, hanging off the side of his horse at full gallop to "scalp" the tail of a longhorn cow. Grinnell was told: "After the introduction of domestic cattle, some men wore cow tails tied to the scalp-lock" (1923, I: 222); and this seems to be Arrow's precise intention, for the ornament reappears on his own scalplock in Plate 156.

The artist identifies himself by many details of his costume---the leggings, moccasins, hairwraps and brass-bead bandolier, seen often before. The black stallion is the same ridden by Arrow in Plates 104, 106, 108, 124 & 138; and the vaquero saddle, silver headstall, and feather talisman in the horse's tail are signature details as well. The red paint on Arrow's temple and cheek will be repeated in Plate 150, where he identifies himself with a name-glyph. For a ca. 1870 photograph of a Southern Cheyenne man dressed almost exactly as Arrow depicts himself in this drawing, see Cowdrey, 1999: Fig. 51.

Some commentators might be tempted to place this scene in the 1880's, during the early-reservation period when cattle were issued to the Cheyennes and they chased them, precisely as they were wont to chase and kill buffalo. Several details here contradict such a supposition. Before cattle were issued by the Indian Department, each animal was branded with a large "I.D." on the hip or shoulder. Arrow was a very close and interested observer of brands, which he may have interpreted as having mystical significance. He shows a dozen examples on captured horses, each design distinctive, and carefully rendered. None of the cattle he shows bears any brand, which means that they were mavericks, or strays---a product of the early 1870's, when various cattle companies were flooding the rich Cheyenne grazing country south of the Arkansas with their illegal herds.

Further, when Cheyennes were issued Indian Department cattle in the 1880's, they were genuinely hungry, because all of their buffalo had been exterminated, and they received too little in the way of rations. Although the event of a cattle-issue was often festive, the purpose was to get the meat on the fire as quickly as possible. The Cheyennes were then too hungry to waste time with fancy displays of trick riding. Although Arrow here wears a cartridge belt, no firearm is in evidence, and it is doubtful whether he harmed the cow further than to dock its tail. This is a leisurely lark of the 1870's, not a hunger-driven scene of the 1880's.