6o HORSES ON CLIFFS 



II. BETWEEN GRASS AND WATER. 



The best way to measure the distance and 

 the sort of ground which the ancient herds 

 were accustomed to traverse between grass 

 and water, is to study the conduct of a horse in 

 deahng with steep places. 



I was dining with some friends at Gibraltar 

 when the story was told of long ago times when 

 a couple of mad midshipmen rode ponies for a 

 wager up the Mediterranean stairs. This is a 

 stone stairwa}^ up the eastern wall of the Rock 

 which is sheer and some thirteen hundred feet 

 high. The story had special interest for me 

 because my father was one of the two mad 

 middies. He had told me that the ponies 

 were not frightened, except at the last flight of 

 all when the Atlantic wind was blowing into 

 their faces over the summit. There a step was 

 missing, the ponies reared, and both lads had to 

 dismount, losing a wager for which the leader 

 had undertaken the ride. 



The ponies were Spanish, of the type which 

 re-stocked North America. 



I frightened an English horse into hysterics 

 with such small rock walls as I could find in 

 Wales, but have never known an American 

 range animal to show very much alarm. My 

 worst climb was made in twelve hours, with 



