KINDNESS. 1 1 



his quips and cranks and merry jests, his shrill whistle 

 and ready smile, his strong seat and light, skilful hand, 

 but above all his untiring patience and unfailing kind- 

 ness with the most restive and refractory of pupils. 

 Dick, like many other good fellows, is not so young 

 as he was, but he will probably be an unequalled rider 

 at eighty, and I am quite sure that if he lives to the age 

 of Methuselah, the extreme of senile irritability will 

 never provoke him to lose his temper with a horse. 



Presence of mind under difficulties is the one quality 

 that in riding makes all 'the difference between getting 

 off with a scramble and going down with a fall. If 

 unvaried kindness has taught your horse to place con- 

 fidence in his rider, he will have his wits about him, and 

 provide for your safety as for his own. When left to 

 himself, and not flurried by the fear of punishment, 

 even an inexperienced hunter makes surprising efforts 

 to keep on his legs, and it is not too much to say that 

 while his wind lasts, the veteran is almost as difficult 

 to catch tripping as a cat. I have known horses drop 

 their hind legs on places scarcely affording foothold 

 for a goat, but' in all such feats they have been ridden 

 by a lover of the animal, who trusts it implicitly, and 

 rules by kindness rather than fear. 



I will not deny that there are cases in which the 



