136 NERVOUSNESS. 



fchoroiiglibred horse has reached great perfection, and where he 

 is ridden by men who are not surpassed as riders by any of their 

 own race. 



293. — In January, 1847, we went from New Zealand to 

 Sydney, where we purchased a double-shafted dray, five unbroken 

 fillies, and harness for four horses. After we had paid for the 

 fillies, the vendor, who was a cripple, was kind enough to say, 

 pointing to the finest of the fillies, which we thought we had 

 purchased very cheap at nine pounds : " You see that filly ?" 

 " Yes." " Well, she has crippled me, and she will kill you if you 

 don't look out." The caution was very useful and enabled us to 

 break her in, as we did all the others, without any help, any yard, 

 or any mishap at all. As we broke them we drove them on 

 overland towards Adelaide, distant 1,200 miles, across a country 

 with few rivers, mountains, swamps, or natural obstacles of any 

 kind. We arrived in Adelaide, after a pleasant but rather 

 adventurous three month's drive, with five remarkably good cart 

 mares, which we sold, on trial, for £40 each. The highly 

 nervous mare, that nearly killed her breeder, went on one occasion 

 nine days without water rather than drink out of a bucket, and 

 her purchaser in Adelaide told us that during the whole of the 

 first winter that he kept her, she would never venture to lie 

 down in a stable. We mention this as one of the many proofs 

 we have seen that what we call vice and bad temper in a horse 

 is generally the result of an excessively nervous temperament, 

 most painful and unfortunate to the horse itself, and demanding 

 not harshness, but more than usual gentleness from those who 

 undertake to educate him. 



294. — During this long journey we had many opportunities 

 of seeing what is done in the way of taming the extremely wild 

 horses of Australia, and the systems adopted in a country long 

 notorious for the best bred, and with the exception of South 

 America, the worst broken horses in the world. 



On arriving at one large station within 200 miles of Mel- 

 bourne we were told that on the following day all available hands 

 and horses would be engaged in trying to drive a " mob" of 

 horses into the yards. We noticed that the paddocks, fences, 



