The mules were first driven into a stockade, called a corral, inclosing an acre or more of ground.

The Mexicans,--who were all experienced in throwing the lasso,--would go into the corral on horseback, with their lassos attached to the pommels of their saddles.
Soldiers detailed as teamsters and black smiths would also enter the corral, the former with ropes to serve as halters, the latter with branding irons and a fire to keep the irons heated.

A lasso was then thrown over the neck of a mule, when he would immediately go to the length of his tether, first one end, then the other in the air.

While he was thus plunging and gyrating, another lasso would be thrown by another Mexican, catching the animal by a fore-foot.

This would bring the mule to the ground, when he was seized and held by the teamsters while the blacksmith put upon him, with hot irons, the initials "U.