FALLS. 377 



he will certainly do his best to clear an obstacle with 

 his fore legs, and if he catches his hind ones and comes 

 down, our chances of either being killed, or crippled for 

 life, are far smaller. In Leicestershire I once saw a 

 stranger send his mount at a posts and rails fence 

 about five feet high, which the animal breasted and 

 went over with a sickening fall ; but I could not help 

 thinking that the man must have been either riding 

 a hireling, or must have imagined that his horse was a 

 wonderful jumper to have sent him at such a for- 

 bidding thing, especially as it had been avoided by 

 the first flight people, and what they can't jump, 

 strangers may be perfectly certain ought to be left alone. 

 In this case, the animal, which may have been easily 

 able to take the jump, went at it unwillingly, for 

 he saw it was not the line taken by other horses, and 

 he was doubtless annoyed at being asked to incur what 

 must have appeared to him an unnecessary risk. A 

 similar thing occurred when a well-known Leicestershire 

 lady broke her collar-bone. Horses were filing through 

 the gate, and the lady, who was anxious to get forward, 

 put her horse at a stiff posts and rails by the side of it. 

 He apparently regarded the act as unnecessary, for he 

 went at it in a half-hearted fashion, struck the fence, 

 fell, and hurt his rider. It is the custom to say that the 

 first flight people who ride safely over Leicestershire 

 are mounted on the best horses that money can buy ; 

 but at the same time, we should remember that they 

 seldom deceive their mounts by asking them to jump 

 anything which is either impossible or unnecessary. 



