MANY STYLES 421 



mounted to such an extent on walers, not only because na- 

 tive industries are naturally encouraged, but because the 

 waler, though he is of decent size and has some endur- 

 ance, reaches India always partially, often wholly, un- 

 broken, generally goes through a long course of acclima- 

 tion, and IS not universally liked. By unbroken I do not 

 mean that he is as bad as our unbusted bronco, but he 

 is bad enough to give a deal of trouble. I have met 

 English officers who thought very well of the country- 

 bi'ed horses of India, and purchased them for their own 

 use. The Arabian, they say, does not have to go 

 through an acclimation influenza; he is always gentle 

 and Avell trained. 



Still, Australia has and furnishes good stock. It is the 

 English horse taken thither and bred on the ranges. 

 Some excellent racers have come from Australia to India 

 at half the price their equals would cost in the mother- 

 country, and have won much money. 



There is no type of rider in India as there is apt to be 

 in other lands. You see in the same province, in the 

 same town, a dozen different styles. In Rajputana, for 

 instance, the men ride with a somewhat natural seat, but 

 many depress their heels in a way to outdo a military 

 martinet, w^hile others will thrust their legs way out like 

 a Mexican on his muscle. The heels are not so uniformly 

 dug into the horse's flanks as among the Arabs, though 

 one sees many men whose sole reliance is on a heel grip, 

 and who seem to have no idea of what their thighs and 

 knees are for. You see as many old condemned army 

 saddles as you see native trees, but they are in some places 

 hidden by a cotton slip-cover like a country grandmoth- 

 er's spare-room chair, in others by a piece of bedquilt tied 

 on or strapped into place, so that you cannot see what 

 the man is riding as he passes by you. As a rule the bit 



