TRAINING, AND CtENERAL MANAGEMENT. 1 55 



rider would be rather amused at the manner in which 

 a cow-boy keeps his seat on a buck-jumper — namely, 

 b}' " fixing his spur firmly into the saddle-cloth," and 

 " grasping the pommel at the same time." I say there 

 is only one buck-jumper — the Australian. No doubt 

 the performance at Earl's Court is excellent of its 

 kind ; but a man seated between a pommel and cantle 

 each six inches or eight inches high, with his feet jamm- 

 ed into a couple of small coal-boxes, ought to make a 

 decent show on any animal, more especially tJiese 

 obviously zveak fotirteen-Jiand horses. The Australian 

 stock-rider is called upon to sit a powerful sixteen- 

 hand horse, bred from good English stock, on an 

 ordinary Australian bush saddle, with a snaffle bit. 

 This animal is often so thoroughly bad and dangerous 

 that he must be driven into what is known as a 

 *' crush" — two converging fences — the place at the 

 end of the lane being so narrow that the animal 

 cannot turn. Jammed in here, with a bar above his 

 rump and another behind him, the tackle is put on. 

 He is then partially roped, edged away to a gate, held 

 by two men while the rider mounts, and, on beinsr set 

 free, dashes into the open stockyard and bounds into 

 the air, all his legs clear four or five feet from the 

 ground. This height has often been verified by myself 

 and others, by aligning the horse's hoofs with the 

 upper rails of the stock-yard fence, the total height of 

 the fence being about six feet six inches. You can 



