SPEARING VARIOUS ANIMALS 225 



With number two I cannot recall doing any deed 

 of valour. In fact, I think my part was that of the 

 little dog who yaps on the fringe of a scrap. Why 

 I cannot tell ; either my horse or I were suffering 

 from nerves, or else we got up to the hunt late. 

 All I do remember is a group of Mackenzie (R.F.A.), 

 Bourne (2nd Lancers), and some one else all standing 

 above a very peevish panther who was clawing and 

 biting at their horses' hind legs. All the horses, or 

 most of them seemed to have lost their heads, and 

 to be quite unable to move. Two horses died from 

 that fight, and Mackenzie's New Zealand bore 

 many marks of it to his grave. 



He was a gallant horse, New Zealand, and 

 wonderfully fast over a country. I bought him 

 from Mackenzie. He eventually died from a heavy 

 fall we took. But while he was in his prime, 

 especially with Mackenzie up, there were few horses 

 his equal. He was cast for a gummy leg (which never 

 failed again) from H Battery. He had a marvellous 

 shoulder, great chest and limbs, and the temper of 

 the devil. It was temper and power got him through 

 the thick country. On the flat I reckon a man on 

 foot would have given him a race. 



With panther even more than pig you must 

 gallop. They always squat at the end, crouching 

 for a spring, and one has to either disable them, or 

 get away quick enough to avoid their jumping 

 on the horse behind one as one passes. Mr. (now 

 Major) Gillman, R.H.A., had some trouble in this 

 way. He speared a panther and was holding him. 

 Others came up and proceeded to spear. But 

 Gillman was so insistent on their spearing through 

 the same hole that his spear was in, lest the skin 

 should be injured, that the time went on and no 



Q 



