256 Among Men and Horses. 



period of life. I have no acquaintance with the early bring- 

 ing-up of the horses of Algeria and Morocco. No fact in 

 horsebreaking is better established than that the longer the 

 inculcation of discipline is delayed, the more stubborn will be 

 the horse. It is just the same with a child. 



The way in which horses are broken to saddle in South 

 Africa is one which I have never seen practised in any other 

 country. It is charmingly simple and has its good points as 

 well as its bad ones. It consists of tying the head of the 

 neophyte close up to that of a steady horse by means of a cord 

 connecting the respective headstalls worn by these animals. 

 After they have both been saddled and bridled, the ' school- 

 master ' is first mounted, and then another man gets on the 

 young one, who is powerless to buck, rear, or run away, on 

 account of his head being fixed. Besides this, the fact of his 

 being alongside another horse gives him confidence, and no 

 matter how wild he may be, he will learn in a short time to 

 carry his burden and regulate his pace according to that of 

 his companion. As he settles down quietly to work, the 

 connecting cord may be gradually loosened out, until at last 

 it can be taken off altogether. This is a capital plan if one 

 has a good break horse, and if one knows no better way. Its 

 great fault is its tendency to make a horse unwilling to go 

 alone. Of course, it has no pretensions to giving a horse a 

 good mouth. 



The extreme quietness of the majority of South African 

 horses is, I think, due to the fact of their being starved on 

 arid pastures, for a considerable portion of each year, and to 

 the non-stimulating quality and quantity of the food given to 

 them when in work. 



As Africanders are ' broad in the beam,' and often have to 

 remain several hours on horseback, they like saddles to be 

 particularly wide towards the cantle, and to have a good ' dip ' 

 in them. So long as the saddle is comfortable, they don't 

 trouble themselves about its weight. As they do not, as a 

 rule, study the finer points of riding, they do not affect the 



