68 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. 



resource. That there are occasions on which they 

 rouse a horse's energies for a momentary effort, I am 

 disposed to admit less from my own experience than 

 the opinion of those for whose practical knowledge in 

 all such matters I have the greatest respect. Both the 

 Messrs. Coventry, in common with other first-rate 

 steeple-chase riders, advocate their use on rare occasions 

 and under peculiar circumstances. Poor Jem Mason 

 never went hunting without them, and would not, I 

 think, have hesitated to apply them pretty freely if 

 required, but then these could all spur their horses in 

 the right place, leaning back the while and altering in 

 no way the force and bearing of hand or seat. Most 

 men, on the contrary, stoop forward and let their horses' 

 heads go when engaged in this method of compulsion, 

 and even if their heels do reach the mark, by no means 

 a certainty, gain but little with the rowels compared 

 to all they lose with the reins. 



There is no fault in a hunter so annoying to a man 

 whose heart is in the sport as a tendency to refuse. It 

 utterly defeats the timid and damps the courage of the 

 bold, while even to him who rides that he may hunt 

 rather than hunts that he may ride, it is intensely 

 provoking, as he is apt to lose by it that start which is 

 so invaluable in a quick Vhing, and, when a large field 



