40 HORS:i:-KEEPING FOE AMATEURS. 



Now let us get on to the question of courage and coolness. 

 Of course, to a large extent, they depend upon the individual 

 temperament of the rider — upon his health, his nerves, and, 

 in man}' more cases than we think, upon atmospheric con- 

 ditions. Yes, laugh as 3'ou will, I have known men brave as 

 lions on a warm day, but whose courage is strictly in 

 sympath}'' with the thermometer — when one falls, the other 

 goes with it. By courage in crossing a countr}'', do not 

 suppose for a moment that I mean that class of valour which 

 induces a man to cram his horse indiscriminately at every- 

 thing he comes to, blind to the consequences, and heeding 

 none of them. Such men come fairly within old Jem Hills' 

 description of the Undergrads who rode at, or over, his 

 beloved hounds, in addition to any other obstacles which 

 barred their progress. ** Bless you. Sir, they fears nothing, 

 because they knows nothing 1 " said the veteran huntsman. 

 Sooner or later, such riders as these are bound to come to 

 great grief ; and though all of us, who are in the habit of 

 riding over a country, must expect an occasional fall, and take 

 it good humouredly when it comes, the man who is all pluck 

 ani indiscretion goes to meet his mishap more than halfway, 

 and gets half a dozen upsets for one sustained by him whose 

 courage is accompanied by coolness and tempered by dis- 

 cretion. Watch the finished horseman as he goes sailing 

 away, on the best of terms with his mount, down that grass 

 field, bounded on the far side by a big, open ditch, with a 

 bank and thick stubby hedge beyond. He gathers his horse 

 together, pulls him gently back, so that his hind legs are well 

 under him, and then, catching him by the head, but giving 

 him plenty of play and liberty to act, sends him resolutely 

 at it. Perfectly assured that he will not be interfered with, 

 the horse gallops steadily and straight as a gun barrel at the 

 obstacle, takes off a foot from the edge of the ditch, and 

 clears it all in splendid style, picking himself up on the 

 landing side, with just the slightest possible help from his 

 pilot, and, getting away again into his stride, forges ahead 

 without the loss of an available moment. Now turn from 

 this picture to that of the man whose head will never save 

 his limbs ; pluck he has in plenty, but to discretion, alack I 

 he is a stranger. Let us see how he fares in his attempt to 

 follow the man with whom we have just been dealing. He 

 has been driving his horse rather freely over the preceding 



