Horse and Man. 
353 
he always displayed a singalar gentleness towards 
me. He never attempted to upset me, though he 
promptly threw — to my great delight, I must con- 
fess — anyone else w'ho ventured to mount him. 
Probably the secret of his conduct was that he hated 
the whip. Of this individual, if not of the species, 
the celebrated description held true : — '' The horse 
is a docile animal, but if you flog him he will not do 
so.” After he had been mine a few days, I rode on 
him one morning to witness a cattle-marking on 
a neighbouring estate. I found thirty or forty 
gauchos on the ground engaged in catching and 
branding the cattle. It was rough, dangerous 
work, but apparently not rough enough to satisfy 
the men, so after branding an animal and releasing 
him. from their lassos, several of the mounted 
gauchos would, purely for sport, endeavour to 
knock it down as it rushed away, by charging 
furiously on to it. As I sat there enjoying the fun, 
my horse stood very quietly under me, also eagerly 
watching the sport. At length a bull was released, 
and, smarting from the fiery torture, lowered his 
horns and rushed away towards the open plain. 
Three horsemen in succession shot out from the 
crowd, and charged the bull at full speed ; one by 
one, by suddenly swerving his body round, he 
avoided them, and was escaping scot-free. At this 
moment my horse — possibly interpreting a casual 
touch of my hand on his neck, or some movement 
of my body, as a wish to join in the sport — suddenly 
sprang forward and charged on the flying bull like 
a thunderbolt, striking liim full in the middle of his 
body, and hurling him with a tremendous shock to 
