A NOTED ROUGHRIDER.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1031, 21 January 1911, Page 20

A NOTED ROUGHRIDER.

GEORGE HOWS. j -On a sheep station the usual. talk amongst, th'e.staff is mostly.sport-, and if the;stray.traveller at any tlmo.hap-'£ons--to 1 - strike- a 'camp >'or\ station; any- - where:- on'the -Wesfc-;.Con'stj: from - :'Kidnappers;'to".Paliiscrrvßay, -• and-•talks with! any "old -timers',!V-it' i? almost certain. th*at:iii coiinection-iwith/rough-.riding .there-will .be.-inentionedtho, jiamo : of>.Geoi<ge-Ho:w's. i Years" ago\ amongst-, station .hands the-writer of .this ' lioto, heard- tho.name -of". George. Hows, .« and fabulous stories were told of his skill as a horseman, and the manner . in which'he could "break-in" tho wildest and cutest buckjupiper that ever danced on four feet. l|or., thirty or forty years George 'Hows has bee.n'aihohseli'Md' namo amongst tho station 'hands on tho West Coast, but tin that,tim'o he lias ridden 'buclijiimpers not:only in' rthe North Island,'but. also in tho South Island, and in New South Wales, 'and in Queensland. -To-day at-the ripo ago of seveiity-two the old warrior is ending tho evening of his; strenuous life on Porangahau Station, under the .kin'dly care of Mr. -Georgo Hunter. ','Ridc, of "course I'can'.'ride,", says tlio .veteran. '"Seo inc." And tho old -man mounts a thoroughbred mare and sends her round a course at a hand gallop. Tho story of George How's life is mostly horse,riding. As a young man he was strong and wiT.v,,he;had.plenty..of-nerve, aiid:he came of a good'EiigljSlivfamily. Hd never-in,ali bis.life refused to rido any. horse, - and- he. was .thrpvfl,- on only few occasions.. The only distressful physical, memento which he retains,of ..his experiences is a. stiff leg. On Fannin'g''s() Station, rJthp-o-Rnataniivha Plai-iyj? lie developed;.a ; v p|n9h'a(nt for rou|hrfidingv : ''ancl .'became p disfciplo' of 'Rarey; ivliieh; turned ' ,him out the finished article. - -"I was onco driving a, njqb of horses ; down from Hawke's Bay to Wairarapa wjien I was offered,yi • notorious- buckjuiaper N called Bobjef'bh 'this' vcrj v stdiiori."; I caught iKrjdle,' and >ode him 'later, on to" Teotaiie,' where I' sold him

for £10.'. The officers at Taupo bought : ,l|im,fpr..£lo, iho,\v<fn.a lot of races, and eventually lie was sold for £i 30." The biggest contract I had was fifty-six horses to be broken in at Castlepoint for Mr. Guthrie. Tlio job took 1110 twelve months.' As a slicker? Oh, I 1 always used'tho 'topr.iil' 1 (i.e., supplejack over tho pommel of the saddle as a support for .the knees). Longest buck ! J Thrto minutes without stopping. ' Not pig-jumping, but fail' bucking in the ono place. Quito long enough. How did 1 hang 011 ? By my knees;, 110 heels, we laughed at tlio heels, thatwas tho Mexican style, with their long spurs, : wliioh they dug in ! togethei-in thethick horse-hair . girths. Always rode first go-off with spur's and whip. The game'.was, of course, to make the. horso buck, and to show him tho futility of itWas forty years at tho game, and would ride any tiling. ; His Roughest Experience. "Roughest.experience? Well, I think it was at Duck Creek, not far Ningan, in New South Wales, and away- out 011 tho Bourko line. I took a job on a station as a shepherd, and I often heard tho chaps talk of'a-black 'horso ■_ which nobody could ride.' Of course; it leaked out that I could do .a bit of-riding, but I never spoko much ,of.jt, and when the overseer once camo 'to' mo - and*- asked me. if I'would ride his -black , buckj umpe'r, I told him that when I ,was shepherding lie could not expe.ctVme' t§ break in horses on shepherd's,'wages. ; I offered, to buy the 'animal for, £I,'" or break him in for £3. Eventually -P bbuglit him, saddlo and all, for £2. "He was a brumby, and had been a wild horse, and he was a regular savage. I got hold of him with another .ihorse,;' blindfolded him,..;' and, took; »flp his foreleg. 'Ho came at' mo '"three times, and - each timo I. knocked him .down -with' a: rail-.;l'.put ; th<).'-'saddle"'on*. him, and, to my surprise, he only pig-jumped. That night. I* went out on him for.a.moonlight, rido, with' .the. overseer, when suddenly, without any warning whatever, 110 started. He kept going for • fully fivo miles, but V I-stuck to him all,-the• time.'-.Caught him again next morning.-'-Oil and off ho bucked all day till nighttime. I was glad to get off. Then I castrated him, butwhen ho recovered he bucked as bad as evbr, and then I sold', him .to a; bullock-driver. The last I beard of him 'was -that he had escaped from his new owner,, and had joined tho wild horses again." - Mr. Hows .is a .believer in throwing a savage horse. If: a-horso,< lie says, shows a disposition to throw himself back on his rider, the wisest plan is to throw him. That makes tho •apitoel tliiijk," and ; be' is lv oareful not to"' fall if ltd cin -hplpf'-it.'; on a biickjumper, rt.ho' foeliii| Mi''-'excitement eliminated from',his miiid all thought of fear. On a horse which made .a practice of falling backwards, ho would always clear his feet and catch tho inane before, the aiiimal-fell. Amongst Mr. Hows's latest feats in his old ago'were tlio-breaking in'of the racehorses Aberration, Elevation, and Gravitation.