This watercolor depicts Stewart’s party picketing their horses. According to Miller, the horses were driven into camp each evening. Each man then had to catch his own horse and secure it to a twenty-five foot tether on a good patch of grass. This circumference provided sufficient pasture for the animals and the grass was usually “eaten down pretty close” by the next morning. Miller also noted that the abundance of grass was so important that camps were selected by scouts who rode ahead to find a place with the desirable conditions.
Miller has brought this watercolor to a higher level of completion than the sketch for Stewart on which it was based. However, the more concisely-painted, polychrome image is far more static. Little is left to the imagination, and no one figure or passage is given more attention than the others. As a result, the background figures blend together, competing with each other for attention and creating a busy, confusing composition.
