TRAINING, AND GENERAL MANAGEMENT. 1 77 



the posts and rails, the gates were caught, and a good 

 day's work done. 



Wi7d Horses. — Is there such a creature as a wild 

 horse, an aboriginal or truly wild horse, in the world 

 now ? The answer is more than doubtful. The 

 mustang of Mexico, the wild horse of the South 

 American Pampas, the brumbi of Australia, are all 

 descendants of domesticated animals introduced from 

 Europe. The first horse was landed in America at 

 Buenos Ayres in 1537. In 1580, that is in less than 

 fifty years, horses had spread to regions as remote as 

 Patagonia. In Australia the diffusion of horses that 

 have escaped from civilisation had been quite as rapid, 

 and in 1875 it was found necessary to shoot as many 

 as 7000 wild horses in the colony of New South Wales 

 alone In some parts of Australia the horse pest has 

 received legislative notice. The wild horses tempt 

 domesticated horses to join them, and wild stallions 

 also invade the Australian horse-runs and vitiate choice 

 herds in a most annoying manner. They recur to 

 ancestral manners in a way that is always the same. 

 Each stallion has his following of mares ranging from 

 a few up to 40 or even 50, and these parties may be 

 separate or banded together into herds of considerable 

 size, even 400 strong. The young and the weak males 

 remain with but a scanty or even no following. The 

 stallion has to maintain his supremacy by frequent 



