IT WAS early in September, and Skewbald’s owner, who had seen him only
once during the summer, but had had reports of his having been found in
various parts of the forest from agisters and keepers, decided that he
would “catch in” the four-year-old, and get a good price for him as a
pit pony. He settled to do the job himself, and, with two neighbours who
volunteered to give up a Saturday afternoon, started off in the
direction where the herd had been seen last. It was fine and clear
(“visibility very good”), and Skewbald was plainly in view more than a
mile away. The ponies were scattered along a ridge above a narrow
valley, the floor of which was largely occupied by a deep bog.
It was decided to keep out of sight as long as possible, and come at the
stallion from over the hill, in the hope that he could be driven down to
the bog and surrounded.
But if the horsemen could see Skewbald at a distance, because of his
bold colouring, he could detect them by reason of his good sight, and
though they had apparently gone right away, he remained uneasy, marching
from one mare to another. Presently he heard the muffled beat of hoofs
on turf, and called loudly to his companions. When the three hunters
reached the crest of the hill and looked down, Skewbald and several
mares, with their offspring, were trotting away towards the head of the
valley.
There was nothing for the hunters to do but to go for it at their best
speed. Skewbald, they knew, like any stallion true to his herd, would
not leave the mares, if he could help it. When they tired was the chance
to get him. But as the horsemen galloped, the trot of the fugitives
changed to the quicker step also, and though the riders gained on the
herd, Skewbald was always on the far side, protected, as it were, by the
column of mares, foals, and younger ponies.
Some of the foals soon stopped, and, with their mothers, fell out of the
chase. The other mares and youngsters carried on, and the pursuit went
on along the ridge, until the bog was turned, and Skewbald led the way
back on the other side. Then the ponies with him began to slacken, and
the pursuers’ hopes ran high, but Skewbald increased his speed, and
leaving his fatigued company, galloped on alone. Some little distance
ahead, the bog narrowed considerably, and here a causeway of gravel had
been constructed. Along this the stallion dashed, and ascended the hill
to where the rest of his leaderless herd had collected. They began to
move as he approached, and stretching into a gallop, they went with him,
this time down the valley, and being untired, began to increase the
distance from their pursuers. “Hang it!” cried the owner; “when these
are tired, and he gets to the other lot after they’ve breathed, he may
keep this up all the evening.”
Then things happened. One of the riders essayed to cut off a corner by
crossing a marshy bit. His pony hesitated, and when struck, put her feet
together and shot her rider into the bog. The others halted, and with
shouts of laughter, watched the muddy figure thrashing about, then, as
he sank deeper, hastily took measures to help him out. They tossed him a
rope and fastened their end to one of the ponies. Then chaffing him
about keeping his legs straight, they shouted, “Hold tight, Jim!” and
setting the pony going, out came the man with a great squelch. “Well,”
said Jim, as he looked at himself ruefully, “my own fault entirely. I
ought to have known better than beat a forest pony baulking at boggy
ground.”
It was getting late, and Skewbald was out of sight. They decided to
abandon the chase and try again another day.
Then the rain came, filling the bogs and flooding the streams, and the
ponies, according to their habit, left the open moorlands for the woods,
where they were invisible, save to the forest keepers, clad in khaki
with brass buttons bearing the crown and stirrup, the latter device
derived from the gigantic stirrup hanging in the court hall at
Lyndhurst.
Skewbald’s owner made inquiries. A keeper had seen the stallion in a
great wood of oaks and beeches. The next Saturday afternoon the three
riders again set off. The rain had ceased, and the sun shone, although
the going was heavy. In the woods the forest paths were churned into
quagmires, but on pony-back it does not matter if the forest be a bit
damp. The pony’s legs get the mud.
Skewbald’s company were grazing in the open, but in the shelter of the
wood, bordered with groves of silver birches. From afar the hunters
thought out a plan of action. “Best go back,” said one, “and come at
them from behind. P’raps we can drive them down the moor and away from
the woods.” As the riders, after a long detour, were approaching their
quarry, having got almost to the confines of the wood, a party of jays
set up a clamour. “No use going quietly now,” grumbled the leader;
“better push on as fast as we can.” The ponies had heard the raucous
noise of the jays, and then the trample of hoofs. When the hunters
emerged from the wood, they were in time to see the last of the herd
dashing in among the trees, hundreds of yards ahead.
“Come on, lads,” was the cry, and the pursuers did their best to
overtake the fugitives, who had chosen their country with skill, for
they had fled into a great wood with plenty of undergrowth, and trees so
thick that no background of sky gave the ponies away. Hollies grew in
dense masses, and clinging honeysuckle and brier impeded progress. Quick
going was impossible, and every dense brake had to be examined for a
lurking beast. Mares and colts they overtook, and once they thought they
had found Skewbald, but it was an old white mare running among the
trees. As they got nearer the river, the wood grew wilder and more
difficult, while their ponies sunk below the fetlocks in the soft stuff.
“Let’s go into the drive and see if we can head them off,” suggested a
faint-hearted one. In the sticky drive were more ponies, but no
Skewbald. With the old black mare he was sheltering behind a thick clump
of hollies, ready, if he heard the riders approaching, to move quietly
off.
Night came on and the riders gave up the chase in disgust, vowing that
they had had the worst of luck.
After this, the services of the colt-hunter were sought. He listened to
the tale of Skewbald’s evasions. “Seems a speedy one, and artful. I’ll
get him, never fear.”
The next morning, the colt-hunter, going out to shoot a rabbit for
dinner, was delighted to see Skewbald with his mares, placidly wandering
on the moor outside his holding. The rabbit must wait, and he returned
to collect his two helpers and get the ponies ready. When the three were
mounted, he sent the boy and girl by a circuitous route to get behind
the herd. He himself rode through the gate which opened on the moor, and
went towards the woods, as being the most difficult part of the country.
Presently, as he watched the herd, he saw the stallion raise his head,
and a moment later Tom appeared on the ridge beyond the moor, and came
down the hill at a trot. Skewbald called to his mares, and set off at a
gallop towards the far end of the moor, where it was crossed by the
stream. The man saw the herd rapidly dwindling in the distance, and
noted with satisfaction that the boy made no attempt to rush the
fugitives, but contented himself with trotting along the edge of the
moor in the direction they had taken. “Saving his mount,” the father
muttered, and then heard faint sounds in the distance, which he knew
came from Molly, who had crossed the stream, and with shouts and
gestures was stopping the fugitives. The ponies halted; then, as their
new pursuer rode at them, they turned, and fled in the opposite
direction. Skewbald had an eye to the hill, its summit covered with
trees, but Tom on guard saw a suggestion of breaking away, and stopped
it with waving arms and fiendish yells. As the ponies, apparently free
from strenuous pursuit, slackened to a trot, the colt-hunter met them,
and turning them, quietly followed. Tom and his sister closed in, and
the ponies, in an invisible net, were shepherded towards the gate, left
wide open. Skewbald, restless and suspicious, turned and faced the
riders gently trotting towards him at some distance. This left the old
“lane haunter” in front, and as she approached the opening, she shied,
and broke away, keeping near the hedge, where there was no rider to
forestall her. The herd turned also, and prepared to follow, but an
unexpected intervention checked them. The two smallest children had been
awakened by the bustle of getting the ponies ready, and guessed what was
afoot. They had not been asked to help, but thinking there might be some
fun, they dressed, slipped out, and hid in the hollies a hundred feet
from the gate. As the mare came towards them they darted out, and,
brandishing sticks, rushed at the herd, meanwhile letting off
blood-curdling shrieks. The old mare, indeed, used to children, brushed
past, but the ponies following were brought to a standstill, and as the
youngsters jumped into the air, their arms and legs going all ways at
once, making of themselves frantic instruments of movement and sound,
the nerves of the ponies failed them, Skewbald turning tail with the
rest, and the three riders, closing in, had no difficulty in passing
their quarry through the gate and into the paddock. “Well done, kids!”
called the father. “Close the gate! Let’s ride ’em into the yard before
they know where they are.” But Skewbald had turned after passing through
the gate, and the herd was now at the far end of the field. The hunters
tried all ways to get the ponies into the stable yard, but in vain; they
tore past the inviting opening, but enter they would not. Then the mare
left outside, hearing the trampling of hoofs, and feeling lonely, gave a
loud whinny. Skewbald caught it amid the noise of tumult. He broke from
the herd, dashed across the field, through the gravelly ford, then, as
he neared the gate, collected himself, cleared it at a bound, and joined
his partner.
“My word!” exclaimed the colt-hunter, with a rueful laugh. “Can’t that
skewbald jump! One of you open the gate so that the other ponies can get
back into the forest again. All our trouble for nothing. Well, we’d
better go and have breakfast.”
The colt-hunter began to fear that his old skill was deserting him, for
in spite of his efforts, the four-year-old was not yet in the stable
yard. At the first opportunity, the man went out again, this time alone.
The old mare gave the alarm, on seeing him, and the whole herd was soon
trotting away from their pursuer, who, as they were going directly from
his open gate, refrained from pressing them too closely, hoping that he
might be able to turn them before long. But the mare led the way right
across the open ground towards the river where it flowed between densely
wooded banks. They entered the wood, and the pursuer increased his pace,
for in such country unridden ponies can move much more quickly than a
rider. Directly he got into the deep wood, he had to twist, and break
back for feasible routes, and go slowly for fear of being wiped off his
seat by a branch. He passed several of the ponies, but they were not
what he sought, and as he got deeper in the recesses of the wood, he
became puzzled. After some tedious wandering, scratched and torn by
holly, brier, and bramble, he confessed himself at a loss. “They may
have crossed the stream again,” he considered. “This thick stuff is the
worst of all to find him in. I wish I had my old dog.” Nell had had to
be destroyed, after an accident, but when in her prime had shown a
capacity for following the fugitives as they threaded through the woods,
and on reaching them, by barking loudly, indicated their position to the
pursuers. The man gave up the chase reluctantly, promising himself to
try again.
He did so the next evening with his boy and girl. The herd was in sight
a mile down the moor. “When we get near them,” said the father, “we must
hustle, and head them off from the woods.” But the ponies took the alarm
at sight of the riders, and the old mare, without waiting for the chase
to become hot, set off at full speed for the woods, followed by Skewbald
and a few other ponies. “We shall lose them,” said the colt-hunter, and
sure enough, after much wandering and thrashing the woods, darkness set
in, and the hunters returned, weary and empty-handed.
Again and again they tried to head off Skewbald from his protector. The
mare, from being disturbed, got so nervous that, at the first sight of
the hunters, she would dart for the coverts, followed by Skewbald. The
colt-hunter cudgelled his brains in vain for a plan to secure the
stallion, and began to sigh for the good old days when the forest men,
mounted and blowing horns, encircled a wide area, then with outcry and
galloping, drove all the ponies grazing therein into a great pound. But,
as he said, that would have made an end of his bread and cheese.
September was three parts through, and still Skewbald pastured on his
native heath.
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[Illustration]