ROUGHRIDERS WANTED.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11507, 1 October 1915, Page 4

ROUGHRIDERS WANTED.

VERY PRACTICAL TESTS. lUKER v. THE STEER Since the Australian horses went to Egypt they have scarcely been ridden. They are how almost as rough as they ever were, and are to be broken in again. Mnjor I. G. Purcell and Captain David Jones, the remount officers, were busy at. the. Stuart Street depot, Sydney, recently selecting the rough riders who are to reduce the mounts to submission. Altogether a bent 400 horsemen are nerd'd, of whom 80 are to be roughriders. Many men were accepted on their reputations. They are riders whoco names are household words, or rather tent and hut words, in the country. They are well-known in the ranges beyond the Snowy River, ami are mentioned with admiration on tho wallaby track west of Hay, and even on the Queensland plains, wherever drovers arc gathered together. What horseman, that is a horseman, but has hen;rd of Henderson, or Gray, or May hew? Clancy of the Overflow wars scarcely better known than some oi these, and than Clancy ''no bettor horseman ever held the reins." Happily, not all fine riders have yet achieved fame. The new men are as good as the old, almost. Australian ranges still raise horse? that take men to ride them, and still rear the men to do it Scores of such men come to the depot. LONG, LANK AND BROWN. The first to present himself was a bushman manifest, long and lank ana brown, who appeared much more perturbed by the ring of heads round the riding yard and the suppressed applause than by the ordeal before him. Slowly, deliberately, as befits a man from the wide spaces, he took off bis coat, handed his watch to one soldier, his pipe to another, and adjusted his spurs. The horse knew his business. By the quivering ear, the eager eye, the quick flickering movements under the skin, one might know the fiery spirit within A fx rcfe wrestle of perhaps one minute, perhaps two, followed. The horse—not the wor.it of outlaws—knew his mas-er, and the rider was passed. The shortness of the test w.as exElained by the limited sanpiy of baa orscs. It was not desired that Brown should be tested with an equine rasc.-i', whose rascality had been toned down by the skill and courage of Smith. Next came a stock man, who might) have hailed from any part of Australia. The horse was an uglier customer than the last. He 6tocd patiently enough to be saddled, but an awkward crook which he made with his foreleg betiayed ihat he meant mischief. His rider looked him over again, and tightened the strap and surcingle yet another hole. A ROGUE. Then he mounted, in a flash, and a second later horse and rider were on the ground, the animal determined to roll on the man. But the man was out of the way like lightning, and mounted again as the horse got up. A second afterwards man and horse were down on the other side. Finding that this was of no use, the horse lashed off round the yard, propping and bucking with a screw that might have unseated Corrigan himself. At this the oldest horseman among the onlookers loosed a great sigh of relief, finding that there were still mem in the land. A BANK CLERK. Not all were so successful. In some cases the horse, and not the man, I proved the master. After a few com- | parative failures came one who, from i his appearance, might have been a bank clerk. Neatly parted hair, something mercantile in the cut of his pants, a hand that seemed meant to dash off the letters "N.S.F." "What's this?'' growled old Harrison, a whitehaired horseman of decades past. "He doesn't know enough to take his watch off." It was quite true, and at the first leap of the horse a stream of silver flew high out of the young man's pockets and over the tan. "Well done!" said Harrison, for the coins flew wide, but the rider held fast. "He is a fair rider." Higher praise he had never been known to utter. Then the horse gave vent to a shriek of anger, and a real contest followed. Every trick he knew—and they were many—he tried, like flashes of lightning, and with all his strength. But the rider was a master of the age-old art. Cheer on cheer rang round the yard as he slipped off the steed and daintily dusted his trousers, while willing hands gathered some of the money. Harrison, if he had not checked himself in time, would have uttered a congratulation. And so it went on till the twenty were chosen. When the riders are all ready, the farriers, saddlers and others necessary to complete a remount section, will be added. They will be fully equipped, and will receive some drill. Then, as fast as possible, they will be shipped to Egypt to begin their important and honourable task.