‘What sort were they?’
‘Travelling over rough, stony country by night as well as day, besides those of the Australian camp horse or “cutter out.” These include coolness and courage, when ridden through a drove of a thousand excited cattle, keeping close up to a sharp-horned savage, shoulder against shoulder, or following up, the rider’s stockwhip making hair and hide fly; racing neck and neck [349] ]for one minute, and perhaps the next stopping dead and wheeling within his own tracks, to block a sudden break back to the herd,—this violent exercise kept up from sunrise to sunset, with perhaps a trifle of a dozen miles extra before the station yards are reached. The “cutting out” work, or separation of fat or strange animals from the general herd, collected on camp, is not very unlike polo—except that a second horse is rarely used either by squatter or stockrider.’
‘How long did the “breaking” and “making” business take?’ demanded Eric.
‘Truth to tell, it was short work, and rather rough. As two-year-olds the colts were roped, and handled unceremoniously, after the bush fashion of the day.’
‘Wild as the wild deer, and untamed;
By spur and saddle undefiled,’
quoted Reggie. ‘You must have had an exciting time, sir.’
‘By no means; full as they were of pluck, they were hereditarily free from vice. Before the end of the first week I rode one colt thirty miles, alone and unattended. He was perfectly quiet, and jumped logs like an old horse; the other was much the same—free and temperate.’
‘But your groom helped you, and the stabling counts for something?’
‘There was no groom, neither any stable. They were kept in the yard, with the surcingle and mouthing-bit on by day, and paddocked by night—grass and water à discrétion.’