RIDING TO HOUNDS 35 



rider ; cleverness may be worse than useless on the part of the 

 former, for though he may in striking back have the luck to hit 

 a grower and so obtain additional impulse, he is just as likely 

 to kick his hind feet between a couple of strong binders, and 

 get hung up for his pains like a hare in a larder. The second 

 form of double, the narrow bank with a couple of ditches, is 

 common enough in some countries, and as a boundary fence is 

 met with in most. It is a nasty trappy impediment, but as 

 there is a bank there is also a fulcrum for a second effort ; 

 certainly it is not advisable to take it at a fly, though it is 

 wonderful at what a pace horses who have been taught to 

 ' cop,' as they call it in Cheshire, may be ridden with safety at 

 one of these obstacles. The third or big roomy double, such 

 as prevails in the Blackmoor Vale, consists of a very big broad 

 bank, with a ditch and a fence of some sort on either side, and 

 there being space for a horse to ' change,' i.e. take a half-stride 

 in the middle, it is well to approach it with considerable 

 deliberation, and this is all the more necessary inasmuch as 

 ofttimes you cannot jump out exactly opposite to where you 

 jump in, so that a perfectly handy hunter who will stop in a 

 second, walk along the terrace between the hedges, and pop 

 out the instant his head is turned to a weak place, is a boon 

 and a blessing to the resident Blackmoor Valian. Here, if 

 anywhere, ' Go slow ' might be laid down as an axiom. Never- 

 theless startling exceptions have been given to the rule. Sir 

 Henry Hoare, who bought his horses for Leicestershire, and 

 rode them indiscriminately in any county where it suited him 

 to pitch his tent for awhile, had one or two hunters, notably a 

 celebrated chestnut called King Pepin, on which he charged the 

 doubles of the Cheriton and Wincanton Vale as if he was riding 

 at a Midland oxer, and though it must have been touch-and-go 

 in more senses than one, he rarely if ever came to grief. 



Take it all round, half or quarter speed is the best pace 

 to ride at all ordinary fences under any circumstances, and 

 certainly when hounds are running, the horse can spread him- 

 self without sprawling, and he takes off more accurately. In a 



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