WIRE 



minimum of risk, but the fence containing the 

 hidden wire is a veritable death-trap. Where 

 wire cannot be got down, there is no reason why 

 it should not be made visible, and also be plain 

 instead of barbed. If a hedge has so degenerated 

 that it is necessary to patch it up with wire, an 

 all-wire fence formed of plain strands will afford 

 an equally effective and less dangerous obstacle. 

 A fence so constructed, with the wires properly 

 strained up is perfectly visible to a horse and 

 rider, and what a horse can see, he will usually 

 jump if the height of the obstacle is not prohibitive. 

 In Australia and New Zealand, the majority of 

 the Hunts ride over countries w^hich are fenced 

 with wire, and Colonial hunting men go quite as 

 hard as they do in this country. We have had 

 experience of these New Zealand fences, having 

 helped to put many a one up, and our horses 

 seldom came to any serious grief when jumping 

 them. A loose or slovenly erected wire fence is 

 more liable to cause an accident than one that is 

 properly strained up to stout posts. The latter 

 should not be driven into the ground, but set in 

 post-holes dug for the purpose. Driven posts 

 soon work loose, and the whole fence then becomes 

 ricketty. If a horse hits the top wire of a 

 tightly strained fence, he will take no worse a 

 toss than if he hit a gate or a rail, and he soon 

 learns that he cannot take liberties with such 

 fences. There is nothing fearful about a visible 

 wire fence to either horse or rider if the former has 

 been schooled a few times over such obstacles. 

 It is better to be able to jump such fences, than 

 have to go a long way round by road when hounds 

 are racing through the wired enclosures. If 

 barbed wire could be ruled out of court entirely, 

 it would be a very good thing, for as already 



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