EIDING TO HOUNDS 333 



the horse so tight as to distress hiin, which fault I have known very 

 muscular men often commit. The hands should be low, with sufficient pull 

 at the mouth to restrain, but not to annoy and make him " fight " ; and if he 

 is inclined to get his head down too much, or the reverse, they must be 

 raised or lowered accordingly. When the standing in the stirrups is to be 

 practised, the weight is thrown upon them, steadying it with the knees 

 and thighs, which should keep firm hold of the saddle. The seat of the 

 body is carried well back, while at the same time the loin is slightly 

 arched ; but by this combined action the weight is not hanging over the 

 shoulder of the horse, as it would be, and often is, when the breech is 

 raised from the saddle and brought almost over the pommel, with the 

 eyes of the rider looking down his horse's forehead, or very nearly so. If 

 a jockey of more than seven or eight stone, with a good seat, is watched, 

 it will be seen that his leg does not descend straight from the knee, but 

 that it is slightly thrown back from that line, and consequently that his 

 centre of gravity is behind it, so that he can, by stiffening the joint, carry 

 his body as far behind it as his stirrup is, without ceasing to stand in it. 

 Very light jockeys adopt a somewhat different seat, riding with longer 

 stirrups and throwing their weight greatly on the muscles of the thigh, 

 while they raise the breech entirely from the saddle, but only for a com- 

 paratively small distance. This gives them a strong hold of their horses, 

 without which, being so small, they could not ride them. Standing in the 

 stirrups cannot long be maintained without fatigue to the rider, and it is 

 only adopted in racing or in short gallops over bad ground, as in hunting, 

 when there is a deep piece of fallow, or a steep hill, or any other kind of 

 ground calculated to tire the horse. 



RIDING TO HOUNDS 



The kind op seat generally adopted in riding to hounds has been 

 already described, and I need not therefore allude to it again. I may, 

 however, remind the tyro that the less he depends upon balance, and the 

 stronger hold he can get of the saddle with his knees and calves, the more 

 likely he will be to avoid a fall without his horse coming down also. If 

 this accident happens, a loose seat sometimes befriends the rider by 

 causing him to be thrown out of the way of the horse, but in the long 

 run the man who has a strong grip of his saddle will fare the best. Good 

 hands and judgment are equally necessary, and the combination of these 

 three qualities makes up the finished performer across country, always 

 supposing the presence of nerve in addition. 



There are certain rules adopted in all hunting countries, which must 

 be stringently carried out in order to ensure the safety of the hounds and 

 horsemen, and avoid those disputes which would otherwise constantly 

 occur between riders jealous of each other's prowess. These may be 

 summed up in the following plain directions : — ■ 



When near the hounds keep to the right or left of them, and not 

 directly behind, where you are always in danger of riding over some of the 

 tail hounds. So also when the pack are crossing a thick fence, when 



