The Perfect Hack. 39 



IX. 



Because a horse can go well to hounds, it does 

 not follow that he is fit for park or road work any 

 more than the three-year-old who wins the Derby 

 or St. Leger is fitted for a palfrey. A horse whose 

 business it is to run and jump must have his 

 head ; while a horse, to be a clever and agreeable 

 hack, should learn that the bit is a limitation of 

 his action, and that the slightest movement of the 

 hand or leg of the rider has its meaning. What 

 is impossible in galloping over ploughed fields is 

 essential to comfort on the road. In the field, 

 everything must be subservient to saving the 

 horse ; the rider's comfort is the rule of the park. 

 It is every day that we may see a rider who 

 deems his excellent hunter a good saddle beast, 

 when, however clever cross-country, he is ab- 

 solutely ignorant of the first elements of the 

 manege. He forgets that each is perfect in his 

 own place and may be useless in the other's. 



I am the owner of a fine-bred mare, whom I 

 have as yet had no opportunity to school. She is 

 the perfect type of a twelve-stone hunter. After 

 hounds she will attract the eye of the whole field 

 for distinguished beauty, and ridden up to her 

 capacity, can always be in the first flight. She 

 has speed, endurance, and fine disposition, is as 

 sound and hardy as a hickory stick, and in her 



