THE AUSTRALIAN HORSE. 33 



N'ew Soutli Wales, the eastern coast of Australia, were derived from tlie 

 Cape of Good Hope and from India. Very little judgment was emploj-ed 

 m the selection, and indeed very few horses of good quality could have 

 been procured from either place. The consequence was, that a writer so 

 late as 1824 says of them, that ' they are principally of the nag kmd and 

 bred without much care. They are not very sightly in appearance, being 

 narrow-chested and sharp-backed, and sadly deficient in the quarters 

 Ihey have an incurable habit of shjing, and they are not very sui-e- 

 footed.' The N'ew South Wales horses are seldom stabled, but are sup- 

 posed to be healthier, and better able to endure fatigue, Avhen kept in the 

 opea air. This, however, is probably only an excuse for neglect. 

 _ The sheep, however, prospering so well, and the cattle rapidly increas- 

 ing and improAang, the colonist began to be a little ashamed of his horses. 

 Several of a better kind, cart and blood, were consequently imported from 

 the mother-country — an Arabian was procured from India — and the 

 Australian horse soon began to be a very different sort of animal. A writer 

 of a few years' later date says : ' We have few thorough-bred cart-horses 

 almost all of them having a spice of blood about them, which makes theni 

 unsteady at draught, restive, and given to jibbing when put to a hard pull ' 

 J his was a very erroneous charge, and the writer seems to be aware of it 

 ior he adds, 'this may arise in a great measm-e from their beiiio- badly 

 broken m.' It was the faulty management and education of the ho?se and 

 not the portion of pure blood which he had acquired, that produced vices 

 hke these. The writer proceeds : ' We have many fine gig, carriage, and 

 saddle horses, and even some that have pretensions to rank in the list of 

 racers. In fact, races were instituted at Sydney. A tuxf-club was formed, 

 and horses of no despicable qualities entered the lists. 



An excellent stalhon, named Bay Cameron, was imported from England 

 and the oAvner netted by him, for the first season or two, more than 600 z' 

 per annum. Horses generally rose more than fifteen per cent, in value' 

 Jiven at Sydney, 200Z. and more were given for a horse of extraordinary 

 figure and powers ; and no good saddle, gig, or cart horse could be pur- 

 chased for less than 401. '■ 



These horses were found to be remarkably hardy, and could under-o 

 considerable fatigue. The greatest fault was a hea^-iness of the head with 

 a considerable degree of obstinacy and sulkiness— as much, howeve'r, the 

 fault of education as of natural disposition. 



A still later writer says : ' that the breed is rapidly improviiio-, and par- 

 ticularly the draught horses, from the importation of some of "the Cleve- 

 land breed from England.' The true dray-horse, however, was yet to bo 

 found and could not be procured from any of the native horses, not even 

 with the assistance of the Cleveland. The niLxtare of Eno-fish blood has 

 not lessened the endurance of the native breed ; for at the hottest time 

 of the year, with the thermometer at times as high as ninety-six deo-rees 

 m the shade, the wi-iter says that he has ridden the same animal fifty miles 

 a day for thi^ee successive days. They will all go through a vast deal of 

 work, but they would have more endurance, if they were not broken in 

 for the_ saddle and for harness so young. It is no unusual thing to ride 

 them sixty miles m less than seven hours, and immediately tui^n them out 

 to pick up what scanty herbage they can find. The number of ^ood 

 horses was so rapidly increased, that their price had materially diminished 

 and scarcely more than 35Z. could be got for the best of them. 



The traveller adds, that there are some diseases to which the horse is 

 subject in England, which are as yet unkno^vn in New South Wales 

 Wanders has never made its appearance there. Greasy heels, the almost 

 peculiar disease of Britain, have not been seen there. Strangles, however, 



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