THE HUNTER. 247 



signals can be cultivated by practice with the long reins 

 on foot. Above all things it is necessary to teach him 

 that when he gets the signal to go at a jump, he must 

 face it boldly without a thought of pulling up or refusing, 

 no matter how formidable it may appear. A horse broken 

 and schooled in this manner will know, if he be prevented 

 at any time from jumping, that his rider acted from 

 reasonable cause, and not from timidity. The ill effects 

 which the presence of a timid rider has on the temper 

 of a horse is due, I feel certain, not to the supposed dis- 

 covery by the horse that the man on his back is in a 

 " funk " ; but to the animal failing to understand the 

 wishes of his rider. The horse will trust himself to no one 

 whose signals are not clearly intelligible to him. Further- 

 more, the weU-broken horse, if kept facing a fence, while 

 waiting, for instance, his turn at the only practicable spot, 

 will stand without impatience until he receives the well- 

 understood signal from hand and leg to go forward ; and, 

 even with a short " run," will get into his stride in a 

 moment from the walk or halt, so that he may acquire 

 sufficient speed to clear, if necessary, a ditch or guard 

 rail on the other side. The man who schools a horse should 

 have sufficiently good hands to avoid hurting the animal's 

 mouth, especiaUy when landing over a jump. 



The gregarious instinct of the horse, which prompts him 

 to follow his leader instead of taking an independent 

 " line," should be combated by the breaker of the hunter ; 

 for unless a horse will go in the direction he is put, he will 

 be neither safe nor reliable. The horse which will jump 

 only when hounds are running, is just the kind of brute to 

 leave one " pounded " in front of some small fence in the 

 event of one becoming separated by chance from the field ; 

 to slay one by swerving off to take some seemingly easy, 

 but dangerous, spot ; or to kill one's neighbour by jumping 



