150 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. 



three feet till it has become thoroughly master of two, 

 With a cavesson rein, a handful of oats, and a few yards 

 of waste ground behind the potato-ground or the 

 pig-styes, he will, by dint of skill and patience, turn 

 the most blundering neophyte into an expert and 

 stylish fencer in about six weeks. As he widens the 

 ditch of his earthwork, he necessarily heightens its 

 bank, which his simple tools, the spade and the pipe, 

 soon raise to six or seven feet. When the young one 

 has learned to surmount this temperately, but with 

 courage, to change on the top, and deliver itself hand- 

 somely, with the requisite fling and freedom, on the 

 far side, he considers it sufficiently advanced to take 

 into the fields, where he leads it forthwith, leaving 

 behind him the spade, but holding fast to the corn, 

 the cavesson, and the pipe. Here he soon teaches his 

 colt to wait, quietly grazing, or staring about, while 

 he climbs the fence he intends it to jump, and almost 

 before the long rein can be tightened it follows like 

 a dog, to poke its nose in his hand for the few grains 

 of oats it expects as a reward. 



Some breakers drive their pupils from behind, with 

 reins, pulling them up when they have accomplished 

 the leap ; but this is not so good a plan as necessitating 

 the use of the whip, and having, moreover, a further 



