SOUTH AFRICAN H0R8ES 37 



In loin, bari'el, and croup Australian horses are not perhaps equal to 

 our own, but they are superior in endurance and better jumpers, being 

 lighter in the forehead and enjoying longer freedom on big runs, not being 

 taken up for work as a rule until four years old. There are more thorough- 

 bred horses capable of carrying weight in Australasia than in England, but 

 it is found that imported sires are more successful in getting winners than 

 those bred in the colonies. The racing ponies can be beaten by those brea 

 in Ireland, but as a rule they are remarkably good. 



SOUTH AFRICAN HORSES 



Are weedy and slow, and have the appearance of a cross between the 

 blood-horse and the Arab. For light weights and long journeys they are 

 useful animals, as they have good legs and feet, and there are large tracts 

 of country admirably adapted for horse-breeding, but here sickness is so 

 prevalent that there is not much inducement to embark capital in it. 

 " Salted " horses which have gained immunity from the disease fetch good 

 prices, and it is probable that in coui'se of time the virulence of the plague 

 will die out, or a preventive be discovered. 



The Basuto pony is a short-legged hardy little animal, but there is no 

 pace in him as compared with English animals of his size. 



and loss to the owners of the property, not on]y on account of the feed they consume, but 

 also because the horses on the stations clear out and join their ranks. On many of the 

 runs where large mobs are known to exist, the station hands are put on to run them into 

 specially prepared yai'ds, where the entires and old ones are destroyed and the balance 

 broken in for station use or sent away to some market for sale. For some nights before the 

 muster all the water-holes where they are known to drink are watched and the wan'igals 

 kept away from them, so that when they are tackled by the mnsterers they are more easily 

 run down than they would otlierwise be." {The Graphic, April 1896.) 



