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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=344134" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Old Timer's Steeplechase</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">The sheep were shorn and the wool went down <br>At the time of our local racing; <br>And I'd earned a spell -- I was burnt and brown -- <br>So I rolled my swag for a trip to town <br>And a look at the steeplechasing. <br>Twas rough and ready--an uncleared course <br>As rough as the blacks had found it; <br>With barbed-wire fences, topped with gorse, <br>And a water-jump that would drown a horse, <br>And the steeple three times round it. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">There was never a fence the tracks to guard, -- <br>Some straggling posts defined 'em: <br>And the day was hot, and the drinking hard, <br>Till none of the stewards could see a yard <br>Before nor yet behind 'em! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">But the bell was rung and the nags were out, <br>Excepting an old outsider <br>Whose trainer started an awful rout, <br>For his boy had gone on a drinking bout <br>And left him without a rider. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">&quot;Is there not a man in the crowd,&quot; he cried, <br>&quot;In the whole of the crowd so clever, <br>Is there not one man that will take a ride <br>On the old white horse from the Northern side <br>That was bred on the Mooki River?&quot; </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Twas an old white horse that they called The Cow, <br>And a cow would look well beside him; <br>But I was pluckier then than now <br>(And I wanted excitement anyhow), <br>So at last I agreed to ride him. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And the trainer said,&quot;Well, he's dreadful slow, <br>And he hasn't a chance whatever; <br>But I'm stony broke, so it's time to show <br>A trick or two that the trainers know <br>Who train by the Mooki River. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">&quot;The first time round at the further side, <br>With the trees and the scrub about you, <br>Just pull behind them and run out wide <br>And then dodge into the scrub and hide, <br>And let them go round without you. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">&quot;At the third time round, for the final spin <br>With the pace and the dust to blind 'em, <br>They'll never notice if you chip in <br>For the last half-mile -- you'll be sure to win, <br>And they'll think you raced behind 'em. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">&quot;At the water-jump you may have to swim -- <br>He hasn't a hope to clear it, <br>Unless he skims like the swallows skim <br>At full speed over -- but not for him! <br>He'll never go next or near it. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">&quot;But don't you worry -- just plunge across, <br>For he swims like a well-trained setter. <br>Then hide away in the scrub and gorse <br>The rest will be far ahead, of course -- <br>The further ahead the better. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">&quot;You must rush the jumps in the last half-round <br>For fear that he might refuse 'em; <br>He'll try to baulk with you, I'11 be bound; <br>Take whip and spurs to the mean old hound, <br>And don't be afraid to use 'em. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">&quot;At the final round, when the field are slow <br>And you are quite fresh to meet 'em, <br>Sit down, and hustle him all you know <br>With the whip and spurs, and he'll have to go -- <br>Remember, you've got to beat 'em!&quot; </div><div style="margin:10px 0">   * </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The flag went down, and we seemed to fly, <br>And we made the timbers shiver <br>Of the first big fence, as the stand dashed by, <br>And I caught the ring of the trainer's cry; <br>&quot;Go on, for the Mooki River!&quot; </div><div style="margin:10px 0">I jammed him in with a well-packed crush, <br>And recklessly -- out for slaughter -- <br>Like a living wave over fence and brush <br>We swept and swung with a flying rush, <br>Till we came to the dreaded water. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Ha, ha! I laugh at it now to think <br>Of the way I contrived to work it <br>Shut in amongst them, before you'd wink, <br>He found himself on the water's brink, <br>With never a chance to shirk it! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The thought of the horror he felt beguiles <br>The heart of this grizzled rover! <br>He gave a snort you could hear for miles, <br>And a spring would have cleared the Channel Isles, <br>And carried me safely over! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then we neared the scrub, and I pulled him back <br>In the shade where the gum-leaves quiver: <br>And I waited there in the shadows black <br>While the rest of the horses, round the track, <br>Went on like a rushing river! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">At the second round, as the field swept by, <br>I saw that the pace was telling; <br>But on they thundered, and by-and-by <br>As they passed the stand I could hear the cry <br>Of the folk in the distance, yelling! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then the last time round! And the hoofbeats rang! <br>And I said, &quot;Well, it's now or never!&quot; <br>And out on the heels of the throng I sprang, <br>And the spurs bit deep and the whipcord sang <br>As I rode. For the Mooki River! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">We raced for home in a cloud of dust <br>And the curses rose in chorus. <br>'Twas flog, and hustle, and jump you must! <br>And The Cow ran well -- but to my disgust <br>There was one got home before us. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Twas a big black horse, that I had not seen <br>In the part of the race I'd ridden; <br>And his coat was cool and his rider clean -- <br>And I thought that perhaps I had not been <br>The only one that had hidden. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And the trainer came with a visage blue <br>With rage, when the race concluded: <br>Said he, &quot;I thought you'd have pulled us through, <br>But the man on the black horse planted too, <br>And nearer to home than you did!&quot; </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Alas to think that those times so gay <br>Have vanished and passed for ever! <br>You don't believe in the yarn, you say? <br>Why, man, 'twas a matter of every day <br>When we raced on the Mooki River!</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Andrew+Barton+Paterson">Andrew Barton Paterson</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=344134" data-title="The Old Timer's Steeplechase de Andrew Barton Paterson" data-description="The sheep were shorn and the wool went down 
At the time of our local racing; 
And I'd earned a spell -- I was burnt and brown -- 
So I rolled my swag for a trip to town 
And a look at the steeplechasing. 
Twas rough and ready--an uncleared course..."></div>
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