SECOND EXPEDITION TO SOUTH AFRICA 105 



go free alongside the other in the first day's march ; but 

 generally two or three lessons are necessary, and it takes a 

 week or two to give him anything of a mouth. The principal 

 trouble with the Cape horses is the inbred trick of bucking, of 

 which I think they are hardly ever cured ; they may behave 

 well for a time, but just when you want them at a pinch, the 

 vice recurs, and they leave you in a hole. Some, when hard 

 worked and brought low, will go peaceably an ordinary journey, 

 but anything unforeseen happening is apt to upset them. I 

 had a very good-looking chestnut I bought out of a team, and 

 broke to saddle myself, and he went well and steadily. One 

 day something put him out, and he began bucking, not in the 

 straightforward style of the trained horses of the Wild West 

 Exhibition, which is difficult enough to sit, but in what we 

 at the Cape call the half- moon, which is much worse, when a 

 horse, without any warning, while going quite quietly, suddenly 

 puts his head and neck well down between his forelegs and 

 bucks right or left in a semicircle. I have heard many men 

 say they can sit it, and perhaps, if expecting it, you might do 

 so ; but, in my experience, you nearly always part company. 

 At all events, I and my chestnut did, four times, in as many 

 minutes. The first time I was encumbered with the gun, but 

 the three others were fair spills. I am sorry to say I lost my 

 temper and meant shooting him, but thought better of it, and 

 rode him down thin, keeping him so with work, till he was 

 killed by the fly. Greys are not common at the Cape, and 

 unless first rate, don't buy one for elephant hunting ; you 

 will be seen sooner and longer, and pursued further in the 

 charge. I had a cream-coloured dun, and sometimes it was 

 very difficult to shake off his followers. 



I found a very light S-cheeked curb bit, single-reined, 

 work well you often need to turn quickly. I wore hunting- 

 spurs, and kept my hands quite free for gun and rein. The 

 horses were unshod and sure-footed. Introduce them, if 

 possible, gradually to their work by letting your after-rider use 

 them a few times. He is always out of danger, and if once 



