HUNTING, AND RIDING TO HOUNDS. 63 



If the bank between the two wide ditches is rotten, 



landing on it or kicking it will not save a fall, and 

 then if the horse is over-paced and comes to grief 

 for want of steadying power, in all probability he 

 rolls completely over, a very dangerous ^^ grief" to a 

 man, but more particularly so to a lady, who has to 

 risk the contact of the crutches on her saddle. To 

 s]3ur or strike a horse once, if his rider is quite sure 

 that the error arose from carelessness below the 

 saddle, is quite punishment enough for the time 

 being; to keep on sjDurring or whipping, is to make 

 a horse forget his fault if he committed one, and to 

 banish all remembrance of what the punishment is 

 for. When men lose their tempers they lose their 

 heads, and also they seldom recollect that if they 

 have spurred and beaten their horses at other times 

 for making blunders of whatever kind, when the 

 horse, without any fault or carelessness of his own, 

 comes suddenly into a blind or blundering difficulty, 

 instead of coolly extricating himself by reasoning 

 powers and well-governed activity, he ^' ducks his 

 head," shuts his eyes, and loses his senses and the 

 government of his legs, through nervous exjoecta- 

 tion of the punishment he has too often and much 

 too erroneously received. 



