Introducing a Young Horse to Hounds 



MOST Masters of Hounds possess astonishingly original 

 vocabularies. If anyone doubts the accuracy of this 

 statement let him ride a young horse into the middle 

 of a clustered pack. When the shrapnel-like shower of 

 well-earned and justifiable invectives ceases to fall on the 

 sceptic's head and when badly-kicked hounds cease 

 their howls of agony, he may awake sufficiently to ask 

 himself what made his horse behave so appallingly. 

 And the answer to his query is Fear. 



A young horse may be the most mannerly animal 

 imaginable for riding purposes; he may have been 

 carefully broken, been made accustomed to all road 

 traffic, and altogether earned the rider's absolute confi- 

 dence ; yet, on the day of his first Meet, when he is 

 introduced to a pack of hounds and a big field of horses, 

 he needs to be handled as carefully as though it were 

 his first day in the saddle. The horses of the Hunt 

 Staff and those of the majority of the field are accus- 

 tomed to hounds and the company of other horses, as 

 well as the attendant horse-boxes, motor-cars and crowds 

 of foot followers. The tyro is just a big equine infant 

 who has never seen the like before, and although the 

 fear of a collection of vehicles and horses will be quickly 



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