64 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. 



colour tells sad tales, and the smooth, thin-skinned 

 flanks are too often stained and plastered with red. 

 Many bad horsemen spur their horses without meaning 

 it ; many worse, mean to spur their horses at every 

 fence, and do. 



A Leicestershire notability, of the last generation 

 once dubbed a rival with the expressive title of "a 

 hard funker ; " and the term, so happily applied, fully 

 rendered what he meant. Of all riders "the hard 

 funker " is the most unmerciful to his beast ; at every 

 turn he uses his spurs cruelly, not because he is hard, 

 but because he fimks. Let us watch him crossing 

 a country, observing his style as a warning rather 

 than an example. 



Hesitation and hurry are his principal faults, prac- 

 tised, with much impartiality, in alternate extremes. 

 Though half-way across a field, he is still undecided 

 where to get out. This vacillation communicates itself 

 in electric sympathy to his horse, and both go wavering 

 down to their fence, without the slightest idea what 

 they mean to do when they arrive. Some ten strides 

 off the rider makes up his mind, selecting, probably, 

 an extremely awkward place, for no courage is so des- 

 perate as that which is founded on fear. Want of deter- 

 mination is now supplemented by excessive haste and, 



