460 RIDING DIFFICULT HORSES. 



securely pinned the elastic with hairpins under my hair. 

 This great wobbling hat only caused the horse to buck 

 worse than ever, until he tired of his performance and 

 came to a sudden halt. I was greatly exhausted, and 

 suffering from mental tension, because I was entirely 

 unprepared for this attack, and doubted the security of 

 my stronghold, for the girths of my saddle had seen 

 a lot of service, and the strain on them, caused by the 

 violent bucking of this powerful sixteen-hand animal, 

 was very great. 



The bigger a horse is, the more difficult he is to sit 

 when he bucks badly, because he can put much more 

 force into the performance than a small animal, and he 

 shakes the breath out of one much sooner. It is lucky 

 for us that a wise providence has placed a limit on a 

 horse's bucking capabilities. I think that ten or twelve 

 bucks, given in good style and without an interval for 

 recuperation, is about as much as any horse can 

 do, but possibly my Australian readers can give 

 statistics on this point. I hope I am not offending 

 them in saying that Australian horses are the most 

 accomplished buck-jumpers I have met. Australian 

 shippers send many of them over to India, and rely 

 on the long sea voyage to quieten them down, which it 

 does to a certain extent. Mr. Macklin, an Australian 

 importer, told me that a horse-carrying ship was 

 wrecked on some part of the coast, an island, I believe, 

 between Australia and India, and that there is a big 

 colony of wild horses to be picked up by anyone who 

 will go and take them. I like Australian horses, 



