O’NEILL’S BUCKJUMPERS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVI, Issue 906, 18 July 1907, Page 16

O’NEILL’S BUCKJUMPERS.

A new and distinctly entertaining class of amusement is provided the blase pleasure-seeker in the performance given by the O’Neills at Freeman’s Bay. To the dwellers in cities, the everyday life of the man on the land, and especially the man on the horse on the land, is more or less a matter of legend. Therefore, to see the horse in its natural state, and the man gaining experience in his farm and station life, brought, so to speak, to the doors of a city, are a novel and thrilling episode, and one that excites the seeker after amusement and after knowledge to the point of wonder and astonishment. In a huge tent, equal in dimensions to that of the largest circus, the O’Neills produce their novel entertainment, and nightly huge crowds of sightseers are regaled with feats of horsemanship of the finest standard. There are steeplechases and buckjumping contests galore, and the fun provided by the latter are conducive to peals of uncontrollable laughter. There we see ambitious centaurs bestriding the indiarubber Beucephalus for fractions of a minute, in their vain desire to emulate the limpet and to cling in the saddle for the infinite period of sixty seconds. But the ambition is of the class that soars, and the riders in most instances forget their personalities and become acrobatic balloons. The high-jumping is a treat, and the 6ft 9in jump of Ruby, the champion high jumper of New Zealand, is one to gladden the heart of every true lover of sport. There are other interesting events; in fact, the two hours or more are crowded with thrilling and instructive experiences. Not to have seen O’Neills buckjumpers is to have the event of a lifetime, and it behoves even the most staid arid stay-at-home citizen to immediately gird up his loins and go. There are thrills of nervous excitement, and thrills of healthy laughter, and the whole .entertainment is worthy of extended patronage. The -performance -will take place, every .evening,,., until further notice.