IN THE FIELD. 39 



80 doing, ride about 2st. heavier than there is any occasion for. 

 Ride well down, with the knees upon the padded part of the 

 flap ; take care that the stirrups are of the right length, and 

 remember that — so easy is it to lose an iron going over a fence 

 — your feet should be pushed right home in them. Many 

 people say that, by so doing, your foot will be held, and you 

 yourself dragged in the event of a fall. I beg leave to differ 

 with them in toto. I have had my full share of falls ; falls 

 of all sorts and descriptions — down horses' shoulders, over their 

 heads, falls when they have slipped up on their sides, falls 

 when they have rolled right over me — and never but once in 

 my life have I been dragged ; and yet, both on the road 

 and in going across country, it has been my invariable hab t 

 to thrust my feet right home in the stirrup irons. I merely 

 mention this — and I know scores of other examples, but oiie 

 illustrates all — by way of encouragement to those timid souls 

 who erroneously imagine that, by placing merely the toe in the 

 stirrup, they are adopting the only method possible for saving 

 themselves in the event of an upset. Sit well back going 

 at a jump, and more so when you land. 



So much for the seat ; now for the hands. Delicate handling 

 is obviously the thing to aim at in riding to hounds ; it 

 will keep you in a better place with them, enable you to 

 collect, without pulling at, your horse, in deep, holding ground, 

 and, with a fair share of luck, leave you at the finish with a 

 horse half as fresh again as that ridden by a man who has 

 either let his animal go with a slack rein, outpacing and 

 beating himself, or, on the other hand, exhausted both him- 

 self and his mount by fighting and pnlling at him through- 

 out. Every horse that is foaled has an individual mouth ; no 

 set rule can be laid down as to "bitting"; that must depend 

 upon each animal's temperament. You will soon find out his 

 peculiarities for yourself; rely upon it, no one can tell you. 

 Do not pull an ounce more than you are obliged ; and though 

 Mr. Whyte Melville, it is said, probably lost his life through 

 carrying his theory too far, I believe it none the less to be a 

 true one, that " many more horses will cross a country safely 

 with a slack rein than we suppose." I do not for a moment 

 advocate a slack rein ; there is a happy medium in this, as 

 in all other things, and between pulling a horse's head off 

 and letting him go along at his own sweet will there is a 

 great gulf fixed. 



