John Grady’s last words in Chapter I are that he wants to stay at La Purisima hacienda for “about a hundred years.” The hacienda is a large ranch covering about 26,000 acres in the Mexican state of Coahuila. The area has desert as well as grasslands and is edged on the west by the Sierras, where some elevations are as high as 9,000 feet. Natural springs and lagunas, or lakes, provide adequate water. La Purisima is one of the few haciendas left in Mexico where the owner, Don Hector (also called Rocha) a descendant of the original owner, still lives on the estate. His wife lives in Mexico City, and he flies an airplane back and forth between residences. Don Hector runs a thousand head of cattle and loves horses. He has a pack of silver greyhounds and brings friends to go hunting. Rawlins observes that they have no guns, and John Grady thinks they are going to hunt coyotes with ropes. Don Hector is a gentleman sportsman. The greyhounds for hunting and the observation that the men are probably hunting coyotes with ropes shows that his relation to nature, and thus, the horses, is different from John Grady’s. John Grady would hunt a coyote if it were necessary because the coyote was killing calves, for example. Don Hector, on the other hand, entertains himself with and uses creatures for sporting purposes.
John Grady and Rawlins begin working, branding, marking, castrating, and dehorning cattle. On the third day, the vaqueros, or Mexican cowboys, bring in a small herd of wild colts from the mesa. They are of varied size, conformation, and color and spook easily. John Grady guesses that they have never seen human beings, and Rawlins says that the horses are worthless. John Grady argues with him and says that there are a few good ones. He points out the head on one horse. Rawlins says, “You used to be awful particular about horses.” John Grady nods, and replies, “Well, I aint forgot what they’re supposed to look like.” They both think that the one thing going for the horses is that they have not been broken by the Mexicans, not because they do not come to respect some of the vaqueros, but because they know that a horse broken incorrectly is harder to fix than starting with a very wild, but untouched, horse.
John Grady suggests that they try to break these sixteen horses in four days. His idea is to end up with “just halfway decent greenbroke horses.” They will sideline the horses, which requires a lot of rope (see the following Commentary section for more information on the methods of breaking horses). Armando, one of the ranch workers, has reported that there are maybe four hundred head of horses on the mountain—medium bloods, or quarterhorses. John Grady observes the horses and suggests that the bloodlines come from some famous horses sold from Texas into Mexico.
John Grady and Rawlins go to the kitchen and talk to the manager. He doesn’t think they will be able to break these horses using this method, but he does not forbid them to do it. So, the next day, they begin the hobbling and sacking of the horses. Rawlins assists John Grady, who says, “No such thing as a mean colt.” John Grady floats a gunnysack over the horse’s face and rubs the sack over it, all the while talking to the horse. These gunnysacks carry John Grady’s scent because he slept on them the night before. Rawlins asks, “What good do you think it does to waller all over a horse thataway?” John Grady’s reply is, “I dont know. I aint a horse.”
Because they have little equipment, except ropes, they make hackamore bridles. They begin at daybreak, and, by dark, John Grady has ridden eleven of the horses. By the end of the second day, John Grady and Rawlins have both ridden all the horses.
On the first morning, the Mexican cowboys come to watch and, by the afternoon, women and children have also gathered. By the fourth morning, John Grady is ready to ride one of the horses out of the pen. In the afternoon, he rides the grullo that Rawlins had chosen as the wildest of the bunch. On the ride, the young girl Alejandra, the daughter of Rocha, rides by him on her black Arabian horse. John Grady wants to speak but doesn’t. That evening the manager and another hand come to inspect the horses. Antonio, of the vaqueros, rides two of the horses. At supper, they receive even more deference from the other vaqueros than they had on the first day.
Three days later they are sent into the mountains with three young Mexican cowboys and an old man who cooks for them. They each have a string of three horses to carry equipment. Their job is to hunt and bring back more wild horses. The old man fought in the Mexican Revolution and loves horses. He talks to them in the evening about the souls of horses.
After three weeks of work they have eight mares trapped in a stone ravine made to hold the horses. When they return, John Grady meets with Don Hector, who says he has heard that John Grady understands horses. John Grady’s only reply is, “I been aroun em some.” Don Hector chats with him about John Grady’s age and the age of Rawlins and observes that John Grady is the leader. John Grady says, “We dont have no leaders. We’re just buddies.” Then they discuss horses over coffee, and Don Hector says that he wants to breed his own special quarterhorses from these wild mustang mares, with a stallion he has purchased, sight unseen, at an auction in Lexington, Kentucky. In their discussion, it is revealed that both Don Hector and John Grady think that the sire and the mare are of equal importance in producing a good horse, whereas many breeders think the sire is most important.
Because of the impression John Grady made upon Don Hector, he is to move from the bunkhouse to his own room in the barn and oversee the breeding of the horses. He discusses this with Rawlins, because he is worried about the breakup of the two buddies. Rawlins tells him it is an opportunity he can’t ignore.
John Grady moves into the barn, built in the English style, with a cupola; the only other person living in the barn is a very old man who comes out the first day, looks at John Grady’s horse, and says nothing. Later, he sees the old man pulling the cinchstrap on the black Arabian horse of Alejandra, who turns to look at John Grady and says, “Good afternoon.” She gets on the horse and rides out of the barn.
That night, as John Grady is drifting off to sleep, he thinks about horses and the open country, especially wild horses. He thinks about these horses who have never seen a human being and “yet in whose souls he would come to reside forever.”
He and Rawlins and two vaqueros go into the mountains to look for horses again, and they talk on their journey. Rawlins thinks the girl is a fancy sort and John Grady tells him she’s not. John Grady has “readyrolls” he has gotten from La Vega, the nearby town. These rolls are a treat, because they are yeast rolls from a bakery, ready to eat or ready to reheat. Most of the time, they have been eating flat tortillas. After returning from the mountains, they go into the town on Sunday, riding horses they’ve been working on. They race each other on the horses, and, even when they exchange horses, John Grady wins. Their hair has been cut with sheepshears at the hacienda, and now they go to a store to buy some new clothes. John Grady convinces his friend to buy some black boots. They also get gloves, which they need in order to protect their hands.
