THE COLONIAL HORSE 



205 



walk back to the stream of his own accord and swim home 

 again. Mr. Saunders says : 



In many parts of New Zealand horses are kept by the Govern- 

 ment for the express purpose of taking travellers across rivers in 

 which fords will often change every week, and it is beautiful to see 

 how bold, and yet how sagaciously cautious such horses often be- 

 come. ' If you have got the sense to let the old horse alone he 

 will take you over all right ' is the marching order usually given to 

 the traveller mounted on one of these horses, to cross a river in 

 which no man and no boat could live, and in a country where more 

 colonists have been drowned in fresh water than in any other part 

 of the world. Too rapid and too full of timber and rocks for any 

 boat, too benumbingly cold for the best swimmer and the best 

 human lungs in the world to live in them a quarter of an hour, 

 these rivers, flooded with snow water, can often only be crossed by 

 a very powerful, surefooted, courageous horse, that knows where to 

 swim and where to walk, or by one that has a rider on his back 

 that can show him and consult him by turns. 



Those who have horses for sale, as a rule can afford neither 

 the time to break them thoroughly themselves nor the expense 

 of employing others to do so ; the consequence is, that few 

 horses are good hacks or have perfect manners. As a rule, 

 they have tender mouths, but being ridden in plain snaffle bits 

 will stand having their mouths pulled about to an extraordinary 

 extent. Several horses which I have ridden hung on their 

 bits, or pulled in a snaffle, but when ridden in a double hunting 

 bridle showed that they possessed naturally delicate mouths, 

 and were perfectly light in hand. It is too common for those 

 who break horses to be rather desirous of showing their 

 undoubted skill in backing and sitting a restive horse than in 

 turning out a well-broken quiet animal. Many a buck -jumper 

 would never have learnt the habit had he been carefully trained 

 to carry a saddle before he was mounted. 



Often the horse is taken up one day and mounted the next, 

 thus producing an inveterate buck-jumper, whose evil propen- 

 sities will return after each time he is turned out to grass. 



Colonists ride very short, and either leave a horse with a 



