154 The Book of the Horse. 



a field battery of artillery landed in the country in the beginning of this year, it Avas thought 

 by most of the people in King William's Town impossible to get horses of sufficient size to 

 draw the guns. However, Captain Smith, R.A., who was sent by the General to purchase 

 for the battery, managed to get together a remarkably good-looking lot over 15 hands, at 

 an average price of ^25 ; but I believe he had to go over a very large tract of country before 

 doing so. From all I can learn it would now be quite impossible to send from this country 

 five or si.K hundred horses fit for artillery and cavalry purposes, as was done in the Indian 

 mutiny time. This is the more remarkable, as no country is more suitable for horse breeding 

 than this, almost every farmer having large tracts of grass land far in excess of what he 

 requires for his stock, and well suited for horse rearing ; but unfortunately those who do breed 

 horses seem to give no thought either to the selection of mares or stallions. The consequence 

 is that the breed of horses in this country is steadily degenerating year by year. There is no 

 doubt the Cape horse stands the Indian climate much better than the Australian horse, being 

 a hardier animal, and continuing fit for work to a much more advanced age. The Cape horses 

 imported during the Indian mutiny are still spoken of by cavalry and artillery officers as the 

 finest lot of horses ever imported for army purposes into India. Unless the subject is taken up 

 either by the Colonial or Indian Governments, I think in a few years there will be scarcely a 

 good horse in the country, as the colonists themselves rarely use horses for draught purposes, 

 and seem to be quite satisfied if they can get an undersized pony at a small price to carry 

 them twenty or thirty miles, after which they knee-halter and turn the poor brute out to grass 

 without grooming or feeding, apparently not much caring whether it is alive or dead in the 

 morning. For this reason a high-priced horse would be looked upon as rather a nuisance, 

 requiring a certain amount of care which they seem unwilling to give." 



HOTTENTOT DRIVERS. 



" Eight or ten swift wiry little horses are harnessed to a wagon — a mere platform on wheels — 

 in front stands a wild-looking Hottentot, all patches and feathers, and drives them best pace 

 all ' in hand,' using a Avhip like a fishing-rod, with which he touches them, not savagely, but 

 with a skill which would make an old coachman burst with envy. 



" I watched the process of breaking a couple of colts, which were harnessed second and 

 fourth in a team of ten. The colts tried to plunge, but were whisked along and couldn't ; then 

 they struck out all four feet and skidded along a bit, but the rhenoster bushes tripped them 

 up (there are no roads), and presently they shook their heads and trotted along quite subdued. 

 Colts here get no other breaking, and therefore have no pace or action to the eye. 



" The wagon teams of wiry little thoroughbreds, half Arab, look very strange to our eyes, 

 going at full tilt. There is no such thing as a cock-tail in the country. 



" I could write a volume on Cape horses, such valiant little beasts and so composed in temper 

 I never saw. They are nearly all bays, a few dark greys, very few white or light grey, I have 

 seen no blacks, and one dark chestnut. They are not tall, and have no beauty, but one of 

 these little brutes will carry a six-and-a-half-foot Dutchman sixty miles a day, day after day 

 at a .shuffling easy canter, six miles an hour; you let him drink all he can get, you off saddle 

 every three hours and let him roll, his coat shines, his eye is bright, and unsoundness is rare, 

 their temper is perfect. Every morning all the horses of the village are turned loose ; a general 

 gallop to the water tank takes place, where they drink and lounge a little, the young are fetched 

 back by their niggers ; the old stagers saunter home by themselves. Our groom at home 



