Rafo rides the chestnut mustang in Janasco after a dispute over whether Mike’s wild horses can be sold as rideable animals threatens to cost Mike and Rafo a buyer. Rafo’s sustained ride turns an argument he cannot settle with words into a public demonstration: Jiménez agrees to buy the horse, and Mike responds to the boy’s success with an embrace and shared laughter. The episode advances Rafo’s role in their work while complicating Mike’s conflict with Porfirio, who had opposed the sale but shows a measure of respect after witnessing the ride.

Background and Stakes

That afternoon, Mike and Rafo had obtained another mustang, a chestnut horse. They took it to Jiménez, but he refused to buy it. The refusal followed an argument among Jiménez, Porfirio, and Rafo outside the blacksmith’s forge. Mike, who did not understand what the others were arguing about, initially had no way to know why the sale had failed. The scene leaves him dependent on what they say and do rather than on a shared language.

When Porfirio turns back to Mike, he braces himself as if ready to face a fight, but says plainly that the failure is his fault. He explains that he has sold Jiménez horses for years and spends weeks making them tame enough for someone to ride. In his view, Mike’s horses are too wild to sell: a buyer who could not ride them would lose money. Porfirio has told Jiménez this, and Jiménez’s refusal follows. Mike objects that he has ridden his own horses, but Porfirio dismisses that as inconclusive: Mike might be a capable rider, or simply reckless. The disagreement is therefore not only about the horse’s sale price; it concerns what counts as proof that a mustang can be made rideable.

The Ride

The argument ends when a shout from outside draws the men into the street. At first Mike thinks the chestnut has escaped. Instead, he sees Rafo riding it. The horse runs about a hundred yards, stops, rears, bucks, and runs again. It makes three circuits around the alameda, while Rafo stays seated and keeps control throughout. The demonstration answers Porfirio’s challenge in the terms that matter to Jiménez: the horse is wild, but Rafo can ride it.

Mike and Jiménez both react to the sight. Mike calls for Rafo to come back, praising what he has achieved and telling him to return. Once the horse comes back, Rafo gets down without waiting for help. Mike takes hold of him and embraces him; when they part, they laugh and strike one another once, then repeat the gesture several times. Their exchange gives the proof an emotional consequence as well as a practical one: Mike’s approval is expressed directly, and Rafo is so happy that he feels he can hardly stand it.

Sale and Confrontation

The men go inside to collect two hundred pesos. The ride has changed Jiménez’s decision, and Mike understands from the trader’s shouting that he will buy the chestnut. The sale confirms that Rafo’s performance has met the immediate test, turning a failed transaction into earnings for Mike and Rafo.

Porfirio is waiting outside when they return. He removes his cigarette, beckons Mike over, and points to the chestnut before raising six fingers and saying the number in Spanish. The gesture follows the successful sale but does not erase the argument that preceded it. Mike does not want to continue fighting with him. He also recognizes something in Porfirio that he respects, and answers in a conciliatory way rather than pressing the victory into another quarrel. The episode thus ends with a settlement of the immediate business, not with a full reconciliation or a resolution of their competing judgments about the horses.

Significance

The ride shifts the balance of the scene through action. Porfirio has the authority of experience as a horse seller; Mike has his own confidence in his riding; Jiménez controls whether the horse will be bought. Rafo’s demonstration supplies evidence that none of those positions alone could provide. The result advances the group’s horse-selling work and shows Rafo contributing a skill that changes the outcome rather than merely accompanying Mike.

The scene also reframes the cowboy’s mastery of a wild horse. Elsewhere, Mike’s public identity is tied to a stadium poster and the spectacle of rodeo performance, where the rider is presented as a star. Here, the ride takes place on a street in a dispute over whether an animal can be sold, and its value is measured in a buyer’s decision and two hundred pesos. The episode recalls the novel’s interest in the gap between heroic images of riding and the practical, uncertain labor behind them. For Mike, Rafo’s success is not simply a display of daring: it brings the boy close, wins him visible approval, and helps resolve a concrete conflict without making the conflict disappear.