Part 63 (2/2)
For it should be known that the perfect rider 'nascitur, non fit', to begin with; that his training in in early boyhood, and be followed up sans inter-Australian, which is, beyond doubt, the rassers innu of a proper outlaw--a horse that, not with any view of showing-off before girls, but with the confironist, plays such fantastic jigs before high heaven as els peep
And yet, to be an ideal rider, man wants but little here below, nor is it at all likely he ant that little long He wants--or rather, needs-- a skull of best spring steel; a spinal coluutta-percha; a hide of vulcanised india-rubber; and the less brains he has, the better Figuratively speaking, he should have no brains at all; his thinking faculties should be so placed as to be in direct touch with the only thing that concerns him, namely, the saddle Yet his heart must not be there; he gar'
Perfect horsemanshi+p is usually the special accomplishment of thetoo lazy for manual labour, and too slenderly upholstered on theelse Sir Francis Head, one of the five exceptions to this rule--Gordon being the second, 'Banjo' the third, 'Glenrowan' the fourth, and the de is knowing how to fall And here we touch the very root of the enerally-fulfilled apprehension which makes one salient difference between the cultivated, or spurious, rider, and the ignorant, or true rider In this case, Ignorance is not only bliss, but usurps the place of Knowledge, as power
Edward M Curr knew as much of the Australian horse and his rider as any writer ever did; and this is what he says of the back-country natives:--
'They are taciturn, shy, ignorant, and incurious; undeeous, cool, and sensible These men ride like centaurs,' etc, etc
Yes, yes--but why? Looking back along that string of well-selected adjectives, does n't your own inductive faculty at once place its finger on Ignorance as the key to the enig a bit of a sticker hi that the centaurs were better constructed for firing other people over their heads than for straddling their own backs
Your true-rider e every unfamiliar scientific fact; stated in conversation, and be prepared to stake his rudi read aloud from a book
He must believe, with the ecclesiastics of yesterday, that the earth is flat and square, like theeocentric theory; unlike theical hypothesis must be that the fire ot of is only afather to the thought Above all, he must have no idea how fearfully and wonderfully he isframework of bones, cushi+oned and buffered with meat, and partly tubular for the reception and retention of food; he ht in his own architectural design that the calf of his leg is riot in front
Just consider what advantages such ahow to fall Why, a spill that perils neck or li reat deala youth sublime with the curious facts of Science and the thousand-and-one iteeneral information necessary to any person who, like the fantastical duke of dark corners, above all other strifes contends especially to know himself; and that physically, as well as morally To him it is a nasty scrunch of the two hundred and twenty-six bones forned osseous structure; a dull, sickening wallop of his exquisitely coeneral squash of his beautifully aastric and pancreatic juices and secretions of all ilandular, and so forth And all for what? Why, for the sake of e the Jack Frosts of real life in their own line!
My contention simply is, that the Hamlet-man is only too well seized of the i to play at heels-over-tip with them And I further e discourse, looking before an after (ah! that is where the mischief lies!) never, in spite of his severest self-scrutiny, knohat a frightened beggar he is till he finds hi a recognised performer
Just take yourself as an exa the old cattle-yards in the flat, and saw four fellows of your acquaintance putting the bridle on a black colt in the crush? You remember how the chaps inspected your saddle, and, the concurrence of opinion being that it was the best on the ground, how they asked the loan of it for an hour?
You lent it with pleasure, you will reirth it on
You liked to be at the second backing of a colt--not as the central figure, of course, but in the capacity of critic and adviser There was the probability of so; also the probability of a catastrophe
You may, perhaps, further reress, you casually related one of your most ornate and unassailable anecdotes--hoith that very saddle, you had once backed a roan filly that on the preceding day had broken a circus man's collar-bone? For reasons of your own, you located the performance a hundred miles away; and for proof, you pointed to the saddle itself Yes; I see you remember it all like yesterday
The colt, with a handkerchief across his eyes, was led out of the yard to soround; then a dead-lock supervened The chap who had backed hi for a couple of hours, and was to have ridden hiain, did n't like the set of your saddle, now that he saw it girthed-on The owner of the colt, speaking for himself, frankly admitted that he never pretended to be a sticker The third fellohilst retted he ith a book-oath against backing colts for the current year The fourth was also out of it
Owing to a boil, which kept hi in the stirrups even on his own old crock, he was coo the one transcendant joy of his life
But you----
Well, to begin with, there was your own saddle on the colt; secondly, your conversation had not been that of a man who did n't pretend to be a sticker; thirdly, the book-oath expedient was simply out of the question; and fourthly, it was too late in the day to allege a boil What was the use of your re--that, in this case, it is the second step that costs? The four fellows kneell as you did--everyone except the tenderfoot novelist knows--that in nearly every instance, a freshly backed colt is like a fish out of water; stupid, puzzled, half-sulky, half-docile It is at the second backing that he is ready to contest the question of fitness for survival; he has had time to think the ain, there is a large difference between riding a colt upon a warusty , when his hair inclines to stand on end But there was your own re you in the face
One of the fellows holds the blindfolded colt, whilst another rubs the saddle all over with a wet handkerchief The colt stands still and composed, with one ear warily cocked, the other indifferently slouched; with his back slightly arched, and--ah! the saints preserve us!--with his tail ja your coat on the fence; and in the saying of two credos (note the appositeness of Cervantes' expression here), you are in the saddle--the same saddle, by the hich you took the flashness out of the roan filly that had broken the circus nior Greo at once, for, in situations like yours, a person keeps breaking-up as the moments pass But no----
”Ready, Tom?”
”Yes”
”You're sure you're ready?”
”Yes”
”I think he'll buckin the clouds, that looks into the bottom of your woe?
We'll see presently Meantime, console yourself with the recollection of the roan filly that had broken the circus ht, Toar rip”