146 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. 



in handling on that of a rider. The animal must 

 gather itself to spring like a goat, on the crest of the 

 eminence it has to surmount, with perfect liberty of 

 head and neck, for the climb, and subsequent effort, 

 that may, or may not be demanded. Neither man 

 nor beast can foresee what is prepared for them on 

 the landing side, and a clever Irish hunter brings 

 itself up short in an instant, should the gulf be too 

 formidable for its powers, balancing on the brink, to 

 look for a better spot, or even leaping back again 

 into the field from which it came. 



That the Irishman rides with a light bridle and 

 lets it very much alone is the necessary result. His 

 pace at the fences must be slow, because it is not a 

 horse's nature, however rash, to rush at a place like 

 the side of a house; and instinct prompts the animal 

 to collect itself without restraint from a rider's hand, 

 while any interference during the second and downward 

 spring would only tend to pull it back into the chasm 

 it is doing its best to clear. 



The efforts by which an Irish hunter surmounts these 

 national impediments is like that of a hound jumping a 

 wall. The horse leaps to the top with fore-and-hind 

 feet together, where it dwells, almost imperceptibly, 

 while shifting the purchase, or " changing," as the natives 



