HORSE MA NSHIP. 



as though the speed of thought were in his limbs," breathing 

 the pure bracing atmosphere of a summer's early morn, tell 

 me what is more exhilarating, what so exquisitively 

 refreshing ? 



Give me a noble steed of stainless purity of breed, his 

 limbs fashioned fair and free in nature's justest symmetry, 

 one that can travel far and fast, untiring as the ship on the 

 sea, a crisp keen air, then begone melancholy, a fig for dull 

 care, throw medicine to the dogs ! Who among us, when 

 the hot blood of youth galloped through his veins, has not 

 felt 



" The joy, the triumph, the delight, the madness, 

 The boundless, overflowing, bursting gladness," 



when the hounds throw their tongues sharp and quick, 

 the gorse bends, quivers, and cracks again, and a varmint 

 racing-like wild Hector, accepting notice to quit, flashes 

 from the cover and bravely faces the open? Better this 

 than all the cunningly compounded pick-me-ups of the 

 Materia Medica. 



No one should attempt to acquire the art of riding — for 

 it is an art, and a very high one— simply because it is the 

 correct thing to do. There must be a natural ^'hankering 

 after it," a desire to emulate the prowess of some acknow- 

 ledged artist in the saddle. Three things are all but indis- 

 pensable to the tyro who aims at perfection — courage, 

 temper, firmness. Without the first he will lack confidence, 

 and this want of courage the horse speedily finds out and 

 presumes on. A bold determined rider imparts those 

 qualities, in most instances, to the animal under him, and, 

 vice versa, timidity is transmissible. The horse's instinct is 

 very keen ; he is not long in finding out whether he has a 

 man or a ''muff'"' on him. Temper and patience are synony- 



