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Hungarian Rough-riders, Hortobágy
Please note, this illustration is not from the book.

In Hortobágy's National Park, you can catch a strong whiff of the lifestyle and culture which, a hundred years ago, set the Puszta mid-way between the Steppes of Central Asia and the American Wild West. Locally-bred Noniusz horses are kept for the use of visiting dudes. It was as one of these that I was introduced to Bogar, a tough-looking dark bay with a wicked gleam in his eye.

Now came the bad news. I was to be tested in the schooling arena for competence before being allowed out on to the open spaces of the Puszta. I had explained about my illness; nowadays I don't "ride", so much as sit on top as a passenger. This is fine for riding out, using a horse as a pleasant vehicle and covering up to ten times the ground that I could manage on foot. But school work, involving riding figures in a controlled way with changes of pace, is physically demanding. I couldn't afford to wobble. To be "spun" at this stage would be unbearable.

The first bit was the worst: getting on. It would hardly make a good impression if I had to be shovelled into the saddle by a team of weightlifters. Fortunately Bogar was small, and I made it fairly respectably.

A feeling of perfect liberation washed over me. With no barriers to stop me, no road to be kept to and four good legs underneath me, I could go as I liked without the aid of mechanisation or tarmac.

On the horizon, getting nearer, was the main Noniusz herd, which lives, as always, roaming the plains. It was none too soon when we reached them. My saddle didn't fit me, and I was suffering. It was a pleasant relief to sit a while watching the sun play on fifty bay coats, their wearers enjoying the first flush of spring grass.

On the way home I was reduced to shortening my stirrups to alter the fall of weight; harder work for the legs but some relief for my blisters. Even so, by the time we returned to the stables, I was experiencing the common complaint of dudes since time immemorial: a very sore bottom.

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Extract 3 - Hungary