“The stockmen had had their breakfast and were about starting for their daily rounds. Some fifty or sixty horses had been driven in from a paddock and enclosed in a yard large enough for five times their number. A man went into the yard to select his horse for the day’s riding, and having singled out the animal, he made several ineffectual attempts to capture him. When he approached the group, it divided and started off for a different part of the yard. Then the man was joined by another, and the horses at once concluded that it was time for their fun to cease. They submitted quietly to being bridled and saddled, and one after another they were led out of the yard as soon as this operation was complete.
“One of the stockmen remarked that he would like to see one of us youngsters go in there and get a horse.
“I replied that I had heard too many stories of the character of Australian horses to induce me to make the attempt.
“You are very wise not to do so,” he answered. “They would have fun with you by the hour, and then you would not be able to lay hands on one of them. Whenever we get a new chum that is a green hand, we have a jolly time seeing him work. He goes inside with one of the black boys, and between them they manage to get a horse off into a corner. Then the new chum takes his bridle over his arm and approaches the horse, talking to him all the time. Australian horses don’t understand that sort of thing, and you might as well talk to the surf on the sea-coast as to one of them. Just as the new chum gets up to within about four feet of the horse’s neck, the beast spins around on his hind legs, and is off like a shot. He kicks and prances, and sometimes he lies down and rolls, and all the time he is saying to himself, ‘What a jolly time I am having.’
“Then the new chum and the black fellow try it on again, and with the same result. All the old hands sit around the fence and have a good laugh, and we let the new chum keep at it until our sides are sore. After awhile we agree that we have had enough of it, and then we turn in and catch the horse and saddle him in about half no time.
“But there is more fun to come,” continued the stockman, “and that is when the new chum tries to ride. He gets into the saddle, and just as he gets fairly seated the horse begins to buck-jump. Perhaps you don’t know what buck-jumping is?”
“I have heard of it,” I said. “In fact, I have seen what was said to be a very good performance of it, and that was in Buffalo Bill’s show.”
“How high up in the air did the horses throw the fellows in the show?”
“Oh, a little ways,” I answered; “enough to pitch them out of the saddles and bring them to the ground.”
“Oh, nonsense,” said the stockman; “you wait till you see an Australian horse send a new chum up into the air. I’ve seen a fellow tossed up so high that he didn’t look bigger than a dog. He must have gone up fifty feet, at least, and he came down astraddle of the horse again.”