My; 
SECOND EXPEDITION TO SOUTH AFRICA 103 
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 swéred 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 
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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. 
hig 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-rcined, 
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 afew times. He is always out of danger, and if once 
