104 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



and are so much more at your ease, and your attention for 

 everything that surrounds you is so much more free. 



On horseback your whole day is a pleasure to you, mind 

 and body, whereas on your legs it is often a wearisome, un- 

 successful tramp. Men going into Africa for shooting should 

 be very careful in the selection of their mounts, and get the 

 aid of some local friend or trusty acquaintance in their pur- 

 chase, remembering always that five good horses are worth 

 ten moderate ones and five brutes. For a season's shooting eight 

 to ten trustworthy animals, and five not quite so costly for your 

 after-rider, will, with luck, be an ample provision. The number 

 seems large, but there are accidents, sore backs, hard fare, and 

 hard work to be taken into account. You may sometimes do 

 witlr fewer no doubt, but there ought to be a margin for loss. 

 Men who go to Africa with the idea that the game will come 

 to them to be shot will find their mistake ; ' DUly, dilly, come 

 and be killed ' is not sufficient to fetch the African fauna. 



Among my horses, I had many unbroken for riding ; they 

 had, I fancy, all been driven. I once bought a whole team 

 eight out of a waggon. On my way up from the colony to 

 the shooting ground I used to amuse myself by breaking them 

 in. The method was expeditious, though primitive. We 

 saddled a quiet old stager and tied the young one to him, 

 neck to neck, allowing about two feet length of coupling, by the 

 riem, or leathern thong which every horse habitually wears for 

 knee haltering, or fastening up at night. By degrees, with coax- 

 ing, we got the saddle and bridle on, and then I mounted the 

 young one over the back of the old, on which John or one of the 

 Hottentots got astride. There was a little trouble at first with 

 the pupil, but as he could neither rear nor back, and might 

 kick as long as he liked, I sat quietly until he was tired, and 

 then, putting the broken horse into a slow walk, persuaded him 

 to follow suit ; he generally did so, and after a mile or two, 

 when he had become accustomed to my weight and move- 

 ment in the saddle, I lengthened the coupling, little by little, 

 and once or twice I have cast it off altogether and let him 



