Echoes of the Hunting Horn 



Visitors to Dublin Show, after witnessing numerous 

 competitors soaring over the stone wall, may imagine 

 that all Irish walls are negotiated with similar ease and 

 gracefulness. There are walls in the Ballymacad country 

 wide enough on top to accommodate a fair-sized motor 

 car. These obstacles must be treated with veneration 

 and respect. No gallivanting, devil-may-care methods 

 of approach; quite the opposite; steady, collected pace, 

 well-timed take-off, accurate footwork on top, and when 

 the rider lands on the other side he feels, as Finn 

 MacCool must have felt when he flung Rathlin Island 

 from his hands. 



So when the Ballymacads jogged into the Jumping 

 Enclosure at Ballsbridge what pleasant memories they 

 brought to countless hearts, young and old; not only 

 of days with the Ballymacads, but happy thoughts of 

 days in other parts of the earth where the cry of hounds 

 is still " the sweetest music in all the world." 



