Bombay. 1 1 



j 



sojourners in India new methods of breaking in young horses 

 and of curing of their vices those that had been spoiled. My 

 friends, all of whom had ' done themselves well ' at lunch 

 cried out as with one voice : ' That's the very thing we want, 

 to learn. Tell us how it is done?' I replied that nothing 

 would give me greater pleasure ; that the information which I 

 had to impart was of immense practical value ; and that I 

 would instruct them per head for the small sum of £5, which 

 they would more than recoup themselves the first occasion 

 on which they had an unruly horse to handle. My friends 

 roared with laughter at what they termed my preposterous 

 proposal. In their opinion I would be more than repaid by 

 the pleasure I would receive in teaching them, and in reducing 

 to obedience all their buckjumpers, rearers, runaways, jibbers 

 and kickers. Finding that my remarks on ' business,' on the 

 necessity of living and of paying one's ' ex's,' and on the fact 

 that no one came to India for amusement, were in vain, and 

 feeling that the situation was becoming really serious, I volun- 

 teered to give them a free show, on condition that they would 

 get me the two worst horses they could find in Bombay. 

 This they consented to with delight ; the performance came 

 off at the Kennels of the Bombay Fox Hounds ; and the 

 representatives of the local press attended. Of the two horses 

 brought, one was a vicious kicker in harness if the rein hap- 

 pened to get under its tail ; the other was a determined 

 jibber like unto Colonel Sampson's colt, but would violently 

 buck if struck or spurred. By a great piece of good luck, my 

 success was as rapid as it was signal. In about an hour and 

 a-half, the kicker took no notice of the rein when placed under 

 its tail ; and the jibbing mare became so quiet that her owner, 

 an unpractised horseman, was able to ride her all over the 

 place without the slightest trouble. Previous to that, all the 

 professional rough-riders who had tried her, had failed to 

 make her move, or to stick on her when they proceeded to 

 punish her. I may anticipate events by saying that, eighteen 

 months after her first and only lesson, I received a letter from 



H 



