248 The Hunting Field With Horse and Hound 



are as a rule, in a very dilapidated condition. The brood mare 

 with a foal at foot can go from one enclosure to another at 

 will. These old stone fences of course they jump. They 

 jump on top of others and jump down again on the opposite 

 side. If the top of the bank is wide enough, they stop there 

 sometimes like a goat to pick what grass they can reach before 

 they descend. Readers of "Cross Country with Horse and 

 Hound" may recall the great importance the writer attaches 

 to tliis early training of foals at foot. It was with 

 pleasure, therefore, that he afterwards found in Ireland so 

 much to corroborate his own ideas of the advantages thus 

 gained. 



In the tumble-down wall country they jump the low fences 

 or pick their way carefully over the tumbled down places. 

 Then again on the rugged commons back from the sea there 

 are ravines to climb out of, so that by the time a colt is two or 

 three years old, what he doesn't know about getting over banks, 

 stone walls and ditches is hardly worth mentioning. 



Hunters by breeding, hunters by instinct, hunters by 

 natural training, not only do they know how to negotiate these 

 fences but their natural habits have given them nerve and 

 courage. They cannot see what is on the opposite side of a 

 bank but, no matter, if they can get up on it there must be a 

 way to get off it. 



So much for the soil, climate, breeding and natural sur- 

 roundings that in every way help to develop an animal to the 

 manner born. 



Now we come to the part played by the o^vner. First of 

 all. the Irishman has the best of hands, and more horse sense 

 than any other nationality the writer has ever met with. They 

 have bred horses, thought horses and talked horses for so many 

 generations that they have very keen horse instinct. In some 

 parts they use principally a single rein bridle on a curb or 

 Pelham bit. When a man has a seat so secure and hands so 



