NATURAL MAGIC.

Otago Witness, Issue 2181, 19 December 1895, Page 25

NATURAL MAGIC.

♦ ■■ ■■ (Written for the Otago Witness Christmas Numler of 1895.) By MARION S. W. WHITE, M.A. 0 We do not keep half-holidays on the station for every trifle — royal birthdays and other national anniversaries do not disturb the even tenor of our way ; but when the news is brought up to the home- i stead That "Dick Springer is at the hut," joy thrills in every breast, and everybody decides upon having pressing business tha tday in the neighbourhood of the stockyard. For Dick Springer is the horsebreaker, the Bland Holt, Brougb and Boucicault, and Wild West Shew of the back settlements, whom not to know, by report at leaßt, argues thyself unknown ; and whom not to tee argues thyself some form of pitiful simpleton. So all tbe rabbi lers, shepherds, and stockmen who can by any means shirk their legitimate occupations, together with the governess, the children, and the visitors, secure reserved eeats on the stockyard fence, and take an observation of Dick Springer while the horses are brought in. He is half- French, half-English by extraction, but colonial born and bred. He is of middle height, thin, fair-complexioned, and active-look-ing, with that indefinable alert finish to his voice and featnres which is gained only by intercourse with horses. He carries a long stockwhip, and places some thongs, strap?, and ropes in the corner of the yard under the cow-bail. Here come the horser, cantering down the fiat, in front of the cow man's old black mare and the manager's big, bad-tempered chestnut. There are a dozsn of them, all fresh from the hills, and almost as ignorant of humanity and its trammels as the wild horses of a Mexican prairie. They stare and snort disdain at the fences and faces, butwith a few flickIngs of the whip and' a few shouts, three of their number are selected for manipulation, and the rest are left outside in the paddeck to moralise until their own turn comes. > * Of the three, one is a dark bay colt, with an anxious, honest face, like a good country boy who has lost himself In town ; the second a longtailed oream filly, with a " dark rolling e'e," like Annie Laurie's ; and the third a sullen young draught, who doesn't mean to be broken in if he can help it. The filly and the draught are shut up in a narrew side wing of the yard, and the bay is left alone to face bis trainer. For the first 20 minutes Dick Springer does nothiDg but stand in the middle of the yard cracking bis stockwhip, as if he were practising to himself. The colt, who takes every sound for tho crack of doom, rushes from side to tide, seeking escape and finding none. His coat is shining wet, and his eyes are protruding with /terror. When he stops after a frantic rush the horsebreaker shouts at bim, and he makes another rush in the other direction, until at last he is blind, and stupid, and giddy with despair. Then the, horsebreaker laying aside the whip, takes up a long manuka wattle, and approaches the colt, chanting "Wo-ho the Pet I wo-ho the Pet 1 " in a curious sort of sing-song that goes up in the mldd!B and down afe the end, and has all the accent on the " ho." At first the Pet moves off, but in a dizzy, uncertain way, and very soon he has allowed the horsebreaker to touch him with the tip of his wattle. From the moment when he submits to that touch the colt is a changed animal. Very coca he is allowing Dick Springer to rub hid back up and down with the stick, to the soothing music of " Wo-ho the Pet 1 " Presently the stick is laid aside, and the colt Is being tickled on the face and neck with a bunch of tussock grass. He enjoys this, and stands like a pet lamb, with his head down, to be cares ted. Gradually the touch of a human band is substituted for the tussock, and the horsebreaker stands pettirjg and rubbing the poor frightened " new boy," and consoling him with the most endearing epithets. But while Dick Springer calls the colt his lamb and bis darling, he is artlessly fastening round his neck a baiter with a long rope attached. Then he pulls his ears, rubs his protrudiDg face musclee, claps him on the back, creeps under him, handles his legs, and makes bim | lift his f set. After this, whatever sufferings and terrors Dick may inflict upon him, the colt is always willing to be loved and petted agait\ Up to this point the colt's sufferings have been purely mental. But now comes the tbree-legged dance. The trainer straps up each of his four legs in turn, and drives him round and round the yard. The colt staggers and plunges, mad with fright, while his two comrades in the side wing paw and snort with indignant sympathy. Sometime?, in sheer despair, the colt lies down to die, but he is immediately petted, patted, and chanted to until he gets up and faces life again. After this severe experience is over his expression is one of mingled reproaehand resignation, and he accepts endearments as one prophetically foreseeing horrors. Dick Sprirger straps a girth round the colt, and substitutes a head halter for the neck halter ; then he jumps on the colt's back over the tail, like a clown. The colt bucks. The rider says, "Wo-ho the Pet I" with friendly encouragement, and guides the colt, who is blind with excitement, away from the fence rails and bail posts. The colt's performance is so powerful and so genuine that we retire from the front row of the dress circle and take our observations from a very safe distance. The whole yard has turned into a colt and his rider, who are everywhere at once ; we bad never dreamt that a horse had so much of the kangaroo in bis unregenerate nature. However, pig-jumping and kicking both fail to move the serenity of tbat weight on the colt's back, and at last he lies down in the dust and tries to roll it off. Then it gets off of its own accord, pets, : flatters, and caresses as before, and turns the colt into the stableyard, invested with a saddle, a bridle, and a crupper, all equally abhorrent to a freeborn taste. • Tbe little filly takes her tarn next. She begins like a demon, but yields sooner, than either of tM othexa to the ohan£ ana ths caresitor.. When

the threa are girthed and bitted they will allow no one to go near them except their trainer, and him they come to meet like affectionate doga. It takes Dick Springer three days to break in a horse to saddle and harness. To-morrow he will ride the colt up and down the paddocka He will tie sheepskins to its tail, danglo white rags to its rein, open and shut umbrellas on its back, and otherwise prepare it in advance for all tho frights and starts of an active equir.e career. Incidentally he will teach it to come at a whistle or a snap of the fingers, and to follow, unled, like a dog. On the third day he will drivo it in harness, submitting it to every variety of fright that experienced ingenuity can Buggesfc, and after thai the colt is broken in. The process is a brief condensation of all the. miseries, terrors, and agonies a horse can suffer, iDflioted with the tenderest hand and voice in the world, and all, like Petruchio's taming of his shrew, " under name of perfect love." After these experiences the horse is genuinely "broken Id," requiring only that care and attention which all young animals demand to be perfectly reliable. Dick Springer is not vain of his achievement, but after witnessing it I incline to think there's something more than natural in it* if philosophy could find it oat.