HIKTS ABOUT SCHOOLING HUNTERS 171 



this new experience as unconcernedly as if it were 

 an everyday occurrence. Yet she was far from being 

 one of the " quiet " sort. Other horses have an 

 invincible objection to being mounted, and with such 

 the greatest caution has to be exercised. How often 

 do we see even old hunters evince this objection by 

 trying to bite or kick the rider as he is mounting, 

 or, worse still, keep turning round and round ! Such 

 a horse is not a good-mannered horse, but his bad 

 habit is probably the result of injudicious backing 

 in the first instance, as, indeed, much of the dis- 

 position, which characterises the horse in after life 

 may be traced to his early tutorship. 



The dumb-jockey has long been abolished as obsolete. 

 At the best it was only a clumsy contrivance ; at the 

 worst it was a cruel one; in any case it was useless? 

 since it failed to make the horse acquainted with 

 his master — man. "Cecil" recommends that a boy 

 should be put up and taken down again several 

 times before any attempt is made for the animal to 

 be ridden, but, except with colts who have already 

 shown that they possess the seeds of rebellion, we 

 think that such a precaution is unnecessary, and that 

 the horse may be trusted to move forward with the 

 rider on his back, and even to allow himself to be 

 guided. Such, at least, is our own experience ; but 

 the rider must possess light hands, and a rider with 

 light hands is difficult to procure. Grooms, et hoc 

 omne genus, rarely possess them. A boy in a racing- 

 stable, if such a stable is handy and the trainer is 

 willin<][ to lend his services, we have found to be the 



