162 The Hunting Field With Horse and Hound 



tic, however, was his great brown eyes, soft and mild, with the 

 greatest width between them, making him one of the most intel- 

 hgent-looking horses I had ever seen. His long straight neck 

 was beautifully set on both head and shoulders, and he carried 

 his head just right to make him a model cross-country horse, 

 while under him he carried four clean legs of unusual strength 

 and substance, with very large knee and hock joints. Alto- 

 gether, he was quite an ideal pattern of a weight-carrying 

 hunter. The groom stood directly in front of Richard, with a 

 hand to each side of his face, holding him by the bits. The 

 stable boy was standing on the off side, the stirrup leather in 

 one hand and the iron in the other. I thought Richard was 

 about 15.3 hands, but when I came up near enough to mount I 

 saw that he was closer to 16.1. 



I gathered up the reins, and the instant my foot was in the 

 stirrup and my weight off the ground I felt Richard gathering 

 himself, and I knew what was coming. Dropping quickly into 

 the saddle I nodded to the groom. 



"Look sharp, sir," he cried, as he sprang to one side. At 

 this Richard gave one exultant bound and then another, and 

 came down stiff legged ; then, up again like a rabbit, frightened 

 from a brush pile. Then, with his heels high in the air as a part- 

 ing to groom and stable, he shot out of the yard on to the green 

 in front of the Bay Mare Inn. 



I thought best to let Richard have a bit of a fling just to 

 take a few of the superfluous kinks out of his legs and back. 

 He was simply too happy to contain himself, and when he saw 

 the other hunters gathering in front of the hotel his bottled-up 

 exuberance had to find vent in sundry quirks and artful ges- 

 tures of the head. He pretended to shy at a curbstone from 

 which he had been mounted many a time ; a bit of paper next 

 came to his attention, and I thought by the feeling under me 

 that Richard must have swallowed a spring bed. I hardly 

 knew what to do, as I was afraid the owner, who was standing 



