Horses And Horsemen

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31089, 18 June 1966, Page 4

Horses And Horsemen

Horses and Horsemen. Edited by Jack Pollard. A. H. and A. W. Reed. 316 pp.

Mr Pollard describes this anthology as both an attempt to produce an entertaining book about horses and a protest against so much dreary writing about horses and horsemen. The result of Mr Pollard’s combings through Australian and New Zealand literature and newspapers, and of advice, has certainly been to produce an entertaining collection which, by and large, amply compensates the reader for any dullness he may have encountered in writings about the horse. There is a mass of interesting fact in articles about the horse engaged In its particular activities in Australia and New Zealand. Naturally, exciting and famous races are prominent, but so are the activities of horns at work in country and tyyn, and at

war with Anzac troops. And the reader meets many examples of the idiosyncracies and foibles of horses and those working with them. Some bright pickings from a wealth of fiction concerning horses are Included. A selection of cartoons adds gaiety, and an excellent collection of photographs catches the mood and atmosphere of the book.

With so much that is authentic in the book, it is a great pity to find once again the discredited story of the New Zealand horse Moifaa (not Moiffa) allegedly surviving a shipwreck, to swim to land through heavy seas, to win the English Grand National later on, and to make a last appearance at the funeral of King Edward VII. Moiffa’s deeds and appearances were notable enough to not need the embellishment of a shipwreck he did not survive—simply because ( he was not among the