CHAPTER VII. 



VALOUR. 



"HE that would venture nothing must not get on horse' 

 back," says a Spanish proverb, and the same caution 

 seems applicable to most manly amusements or pursuits. 

 We cannot enter a boat, put on a pair of skates, take a 

 gun in hand for covert shooting, or even run downstairs 

 in a hurry without encountering risk ; but the amount 

 of peril to which a horseman subjects himself seems 

 proportioned inversely to the unconsciousness of it he 

 displays. 



" Where there is no fear there is no danger," though a 

 somewhat reckless aphorism, is more applicable, I think, 

 to the exercise of riding than to any other venture of 

 neck and limbs, The horse is an animal of exceedingly 

 nervous temperament, sympathetic too, in the highest 

 degree, with the hand from which he takes his instruc- 

 tions. Its slightest vacillation affects him with electric 



