cattle ranching and stockriding.
while i stayed at smith's station, we made acquaintance with a young man, by name hudson, a son of the famous railway king. he had come to new zealand a few years previously with slender means and was a pushing, energetic fellow. he settled on the ashburton and set up business as a carter, investing his money in a couple of drays and bullock teams, with which he contracted to convey wool from the stations to christchurch, returning with stores, etc., and sometimes carting timber from the forest and such like. my first day's experience of driving wild cattle was in his company.
a stockrider's life is perhaps of all occupations the most enjoyable, and there is just that element of risk connected with it that increases its fascination, but to make it intelligible to the reader, a sketch of the working and management of a cattle station will be necessary.
although most sheep farmers feed a certain number of cattle to enable them to utilise the portions of their run which may be unsuitable for grazing, there are some squatters who confine themselves to cattle alone, and the produce derived from such stations includes beef, butter, cheese, hides, horns, and working stock—that is, bullocks destined for use in pulling drays; such entirely taking the places of draught horses up country.
a cattle rancher may have from one to two thousand head of cattle running wild. of these, one portion is milch cows, which are daily driven in for milking and from which the extensive butter and cheese dairies are supplied; another the fat cattle fed for the market, and a third, young stock for breaking in as working bullocks. as with sheep, the cattle are periodically mustered in the stock yards for branding, selections for various purposes, and for sale.
mustering a large head of wild cattle is exciting work. half a dozen men mounted on well-trained horses, each carrying his stockwhip, start for the run. the stockwhip is composed of a lash of plaited raw hide, twelve to fifteen feet long, and about one and half inches thick at the belly, which is close to the handle. the latter is about nine inches long, made of some hard tough wood, usually[pg 47] weighted at the hand end. the experienced stockman can do powerful execution with these whips, one blow from which is sufficient to cut a slice out of the beast's hide, and i have seen an expert cut from top to bottom the side of a nail can with a single blow from his whip.
the cattle are spread over perhaps twenty or thirty thousand acres of unfenced country, and each man follows his portion of the herd, collecting and driving into a common centre. for a time all goes well, until some wary or ill-conditioned brute breaks away, followed possibly by a number of his comrades, who only need a lead to give the stockman trouble. then commences a chase, and not infrequently it is a chase in vain, and the fagged stockman and his jaded steed are obliged to give them up for that day, and proceed to hold what he has got in hand.
there is sometimes considerable danger in following up too closely these beasts when they begin to show signs of fatigue, as they then often turn to bay under the first scrap of shelter, and if the horseman unwarily or ignorantly approaches too near in his endeavour to dislodge them, they will charge, and the death of the horse or rider may be the result. both, however, are generally too well aware of these little failings to endeavour to prevail over a jaded or "baked" beast, and prefer to let him rest.
upon the cattle being yarded, the most exciting operation is the capturing and securing of the young beasts requiring to be broken in to the yoke. an experienced and expert stockman enters the enclosure carrying in his hand a pine sapling, 12 or 15 feet in length, at the end of which is a running noose of raw hide or strong hemp rope, attached to a strong rope which is passed round a capstan outside the stockyard and near to a corner post. with considerable dexterity, not infrequently accompanied by personal danger, the man slips the noose over the horns of the beast he wishes to secure, when he immediately jumps over the rails, and with the assistance of the men outside, winds up the rope till the struggling and infuriated animal is fast held in a corner of the yard. another noose is then slipped round the hind leg nearest the rails and firmly fastened.
the yard being cleared, a steady old working bullock is now driven alongside our young friend, and the two are yoked together neck and neck, the trained bullock selected being always the more powerful of the two. the ropes are then unfastened and the pair left free to keep company for[pg 48] a month or so, by which time the old worker will have trained his young charge sufficiently to permit of his being put into the body of a team and submitted to the unmerciful charge of the bullock puncher (driver). there is no escape for the novice then, yoked fast to a powerful beast with others before and behind, and the cruel cutting whip over him, in the hands of a man possessing but little sentiment: he must obey, and after a time becomes as tractable as the rest. indeed, it is wonderful how intelligent and obedient these animals become under the hands of an experienced driver. there is a code of bullock punching language they soon get to understand; they answer readily to their names, and are, if anything, more sensible, obedient, and manageable than horses.
my ride with hudson, which i referred to, was as hard a day's work as i have experienced of the kind. we started from the ashburton at daybreak, and after a quiet canter of five miles, reached an open piece of river bed flat, on which were grazing some two hundred head of cattle, amongst which were five young bullocks of hudson's he wished to cut out and drive to moorhouse's station on the rangitata, about twenty miles further south. the cutting out is more difficult than driving the whole herd, which will be apparent.
having entered among them and found the animals we were in search of, we proceeded quietly to move them to a common place near the edge, from which we meant to drive them, and hudson, who had considerable experience, succeeded after a while in collecting his five beasts in a favourable spot for our enterprise. we then took up positions on either side, and with a sudden spurt endeavoured to drive them on to the plain. we were partially successful, leaving only one of the five behind, and we got the other four clear away some miles before they seemed to be aware of the absence of their comrades, but with some smart galloping we were keeping them well together in the direction we wanted to go. we were not, however, destined to continue fortunate for long. after a while we unexpectedly came across a herd of fresh cattle, into which our charges at once bolted, and it took two hours hard galloping before we succeeded in extricating only two of them. with these we were obliged to be satisfied; our horses were showing signs of fatigue, and without fresh mounts and other assistance it would be impossible to cut out the others that day.
the baked steers
the baked steers.
fortunately those we had went away quietly, and we hoped that no further impediment would occur. we were sadly mistaken. for six miles all went well, but it was then clear that the animals were getting baked (jaded); they were in too good condition for the hard cutting out twice repeated.
on reaching an isolated cabbage tree one deliberately lay down, while the other backed against the tree and stood sulkily at bay. being nearest, i ignorantly made at them with the whip, when i was saluted with a bellow and a sudden charge, which, had not my horse been more on guard than i was, might have maimed one or both of us. the beast, having charged, backed again to the tree, and stood with nozzle touching the ground, breathing heavily, with sunken flanks and half-glazed eyes, a picture of imbecility, recklessness, and fatigue.
hudson, on coming up, saw it was useless to attempt driving him further, and so we left him and the cabbage tree, and resumed our course with one bullock, which we actually did succeed in getting to the stockyard as night was falling.
here, unfortunately, we found the yards closed and no one by to open them, and whilst i dismounted to take down the rails, the infernal beast once more bolted, apparently as fresh as ever, and notwithstanding all our endeavours to overhaul him darkness and our jaded horses failed us, and we had no resource but to wend our weary way to the homestead, three miles up the river, disappointed, dead beat, and hungry.
we were most hospitably received by mr. and mrs. ben moorhouse, with whom for genuine kindness and hospitality few could compare, and they invited us to stay with them a day or two, which we gladly agreed to do. it was a real treat to pass any time in such a lovely locality and with such friends. the homestead was built on the river bed flat, a natural park covered with shrubbery palms, pines, and forest trees, along which on one side the turbulent rangitata rushed in a confusion of waterfalls, whirlpools, and cascades, amidst huge masses of rock, and beyond which rose precipitous hills with their lower portions clothed in richest vegetation. the views up the gorge from this point were enchanting, but i will take another opportunity of describing some of the mountain scenery of the southern alps, the grandest in its own peculiar form of any in the world.[pg 50]
mr. ben moorhouse was one of three brothers, two of whom were squatters, and the eldest superintendent of the province of canterbury. they had all been some years in australia, and were exceedingly fine men over six feet in height and built in proportion, good shots and experts at most games of strength and skill, not amongst the least of which was the science of boxing. we were treated the morning after our arrival to a lesson with the gloves, subsequently often repeated, and following this we had turns each in trying to ride a very clever buckjumper, a late purchase.
the faculty of buckjumping is, i believe, almost confined to australian horses, and seems to be bred in them—perhaps the original rough breaking was responsible for the vice; but whatever be the cause it was then a fact that eight out of every ten horses could and did buckjump, and with many of them the vice was incurable. an experienced buckjumper will decide as the saddle is being put on him to get rid of it as soon as possible without any apparent reason for such reprehensible conduct. he will swell himself out so that the girths cannot be fully tightened, and when he is mounted will suddenly bound off the ground, throw down his head, and prop violently on his fore feet, and this he will continue to repeat till the saddle comes on to his withers, and the rider finds some other resting place. so long as the saddle keeps its position, and the girths hold, there is a chance for the rider, but if they go he must, although he frequently goes without them.
there is a special saddle made for buckjumpers, provided with heavy pads to prop the knee against, and so prevent the rider from being chucked forward, and this is sometimes assisted by securely fastening an iron bar with a roll of blanket around it across the pommel of the saddle. this presses across the thighs just above the knees, and affords great additional security, and a surcingle is strapped over the seat of the saddle as a further assistance to the girths.
there is also another plan adopted with a really bad brute—namely, a crutch of wood or iron fastened to a martingale below, with two rings above, through which the reins are led. this contrivance is to prevent the animal lowering his head, which is a necessary movement on his part for accomplished bucking.
