The New York herald., 1922-03-05

MERITED TRIBUTE
TO AN ARMY HORSE
Austrslia's Cowboy Poet, VIII
III. 0giIvie, Described the
Famed Waller.

The Australian stock horse, COM
monty known as the Waller, is the SUBJ
ject Of q glowing tribute BY VIII II.
Oglivie in recent issue Of the London
Field. This Is the horse that 50 dis
tingushed himself in Gen. Allcnby's
spectacular campaign in Asia during
the great war, and though his perform
anccs have perhaps been exaggerated
there can be no doubt that he endured
hardships and short rations and went
through under heavy weight with cour-
age and endurance unsurpassed by the
old time American broncho.
In his youth Mr.. Ogilvie was a stock
rider "out at the back o. BourkeH in
New South Wales and he knows the
Walers from having branded them and
broken them and ridden them on their
native heath. Incidentally. he Is the
author of volume OF verse, Fair Girls
and Gray Horses" that fairly rivals
the poems of Adam Lindsay Gordon in
celebrating the horse and horsemanship
Of the Australian plains.
Two things one notes AZ once about
the saddle horses on an Australian sta
tion," lie says. 'They wear no shoes
and they eat no corn (grain). Absence
Of shoes means absence of conclusion
and consequent ease in travelling and II
is generally admitted that there is no
horse feed known to man which has
more strengthening properties than the
sun dried. haylilte bluegrass and barley
grass OF New South Wales and Queens
land. The conditions Of his birth tend
to endow the stock horse with hardness.
He is foaled in some far stretching,
lonely paddock, forty. fifty or even sixty
mil In .irn ia In "
days he runs with the station mob of
mares and foals. Wild horses they are
To all intents and purposes When the
foals are three or four months old they
are mustered for branding. Later on
they arc mustered again and weaned
and turned out In the scrub by them
selves until brought in for breaking.
THE breaking is somewhat super
ficial. but II is sufficient. When a colt
has been handled quite enough to let
a man bride and saddle him, to lead
and 70 til up. he is considered ready to
hand over to q stock man, who makes
or mars him in the rough and ready
manner Of the outer West. In spite Of
this casual education the bush colt il
more often than not a good hack, with
q fast, saDping walk, easy armchair
canter. q first rate snapplc mouth and
temper which no rough usage can
spoil.
Courage and remarkable endurance
have stamped the Australian stock horse
as preeminent among the long journey
horses of the world. Ills pluck Is surely
tested almost every time he is sadded.
lie Is CALLED by hard leather girths and
cut by sweat-roughened and badly
stuffed saddles. lie is tied up for hours
IN the scorching sun while his master at
tends 90 business Or pleasure. lie Is rid
den long hours without water and turned
out al night to feed in drought-strickcn
pastures. tortured by mosquitoes and
sand flies. Yet he never fails Us, finch
ing only q little when the cold saddle
first touches Che red-raw sore upon his
back or when the sharp edged girth re
news the torture or yesterdays gall.
"Uukempt and wild. with mud and
burrs In his name and tail, with bare
hoofs cracked and split in contact with
che iron-hard roads. with green foam
dripping from his snafie bars and spur
marks worn along his fianks, he still car
ries the proud crest of one that has fed
in far-reaching paddocks and has come
TO drink at wide and open water and ]
remember him gratefully as tho gallant
companion OF many a reckless gallop
and many a day-long ride"