148 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



never forget — the feeling of horrid anticipation with 

 which I glanced at his legs. Bnt fortunately, the 

 ground being soft, the hair had not been taken off. so 

 that the cob's selling value remained as it had been. 

 I remounted, and "carrying his head in my hand," 

 rode the rest of the way, divided between the fear of 

 beiug late for an important engagement and of spoil- 

 ing the horse, to say nothing of my own neck. But 

 when your mount arrives at this condition, when he 

 feels like a block of wood beneath you, all his elas- 

 ticity being gone, and especially if he begins to stum- 

 ble, the better plan is to get off aud walk. The most 

 skilful riding cannot with any certainty keep him on 

 his legs. However, if your journey be a matter of 

 life and death, or if you prefer to take the gambler's 

 chance of finishing it without an accident, your only 

 course is to maintain a firm hold of the bit, — not a 

 dead pull, but a " sensational," enlivening pull, and at 

 the same time to touch up the faltering nag with whip 

 or spur. If he is allowed when tired to drop into 

 his natural lethargic condition, he will quickly be 

 down in the dust. 



Stumbling horses will sometimes fall even when 

 going at a walk-, they do so most frequently at a jog 

 trot, and the likeliest spot for such an accident is near 

 the bottom of a hill, where the ground still declines, 

 but, the steepness of the descent being past, the horse 

 relaxes his attention. " It is not at a desperate ' hiv- 

 erman' pace, and over very bad roads, that a horse 

 tumbles and smashes his knees, but on your par- 

 ticularly nice road, when the horse is going gently 

 and lazily, and is half asleep, like the gemman on 

 his back." 



