The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-01-09
Horses In Australia,

hOISSS III australia
The feats of the Australian race-horse
are only beaten upon the best courses
in England, and for bottom questioned
If the colonial horse has been excelled.
No amusement is so general as racing,
no people so addicted to it /; nowhere is
the horse in such general use as In Aus
tralia. 1t is not confined to n class
or one district, as it may be elsewhere 4;
it is the amusement of the country.
There are cricket in all games, cours-
ing, hunting, catching, and many
sports; but horse-racing is the first
and universal favorite. In the bush,
every small village hast fastest'horses;
nearly every station INDUCES in a
little racing /; for horses are everywhere,
and constantly used by all the popula-
ton /; as it is so easy to keep any ami
NAL in this climate, horses cost nothing.
They are born and bred-broke in and
worked all their lives-upon grass and
in the bush, without any shelter, or, we
may say, any grooming. These are the
ordinary horses of the country. Race
horses and pet hacks, or hunters, or
heavy draught-horses, are fed and sta
bled, being for special work but they
are exceptional. And, as grass is SO
plentiful, and as horses, like cattle,
require no looking after beyond keep
ing them within some limits, they have
increased far and beyond all limits of
use or profit. They ere more than I'M
salable, and worse than useless. In
many of the old districts of New South
Wales they run wild in thousands /;
they are not worth looking after, and
are very difficult to collect in any way +;
- IL FL sc 0kL1u ,.NGAoIIa
stock, and are only a scourge Epon the
pastures. Hence they have to be ex-
terminated like vermin. In many parts
of the country they are shot by hired
men, for so much per head, and are col
lected and destroyed Systematically.
They abound in wild mobs upon noun
tains of the most rugged and inacces-
sible character, as well as upon the
widest-plains of the interior; always
d~egenerating, becoming smaller, weak
er, and wilder.
The wild-horse of the ranges be-
comes very active and wiry, and has |
hoofs of iron, with the foothold of a
mule. He scrambles over rocks, and
gallops down slopes which no other
horse, under any circumstances, could
be made to face. He can only be OBJ
tanned by careful stalking aud coaxing
into deiles, or by fences leading into
yards, and run through by one man af-
ter another or, if upon the plains,
the wild horse gallops until he
falls. Here he may be got up by
&c coaxing," like wild-cattle, but by an
other system of hunting. Daylight is
chosen for this, as some galloping may
be expected, and a mob of quiet horses
taken as coaches, and drawn quietly out
as decoys. When the mob first see the
others they are very shy of joining
them, and will not remain with them of
their choice. The old patriarch will
round up his troop, and then trot and
gaze upon the strangers-his head erect,
ears forward, and n~ostrils dilated, his
heavy crest lifting a long, tangled name
challenges the intruders. They
will take no notice. Then the wild
horse goes round his own, and drives
them back a little. He again salutes
the others and this time he examines
them and passes through the lot. The
wild troop then trot up, the foals frol-
in front they will gallOp round
the others and wheel back again their
/" sire" goes out and steadies them.
And so on for some minutes. They
break away at length, and per
haps leave the coaches. But the stock
men must watch their opportunity, and
round up the whole two mobs together. |
A stampede is almost sure to ensue, and
most of the wild ones be lost-they will
break away, straight across the plains,
trusting to their speed alone, but they
cannot last long. A stabbed horse will
run them down under any weight, and
most stock-horses can head them again
and again but they will not stop; and
in attempts to get them. many are run
until they drop dead on the plain many
are left and the whole dwindle
by the boiling and knocking up until
perhaps only a half of the original wild
mob reaches the yard. Then even that
half result is unsatisfactory for, out of
a hundred such wild animals, there are
not perhaps three head worth breaking
in !; possibly some "coach" has been
lost, or some stock-horse injured. The
only gain is the removal of the lot from
the pasture they were occupying, which
they held to the annoyance and risk of
the quiet horses, and to the loss of food
for all other stock.