6 HORSES 



but it is a very unpleasant sensation, and very bad 

 for the nerves. 



The winter holidays are of course different, and 

 two days a week hunting will be sufficient to keep 

 any pony exercised, but in the summer no boy 

 likes to be forced to ride every day — it is too much 

 like the regular routine of school. 



I do not, however, advise the boy who is only 

 learning to ride to begin hunting at once, as a pony 

 may be the quietest beast on ordinary occasions and 

 yet, directly he hears hounds, develop an unex- 

 pected and uncomfortable fire. 



The nerves of a boy are very sensitive, and the 

 more highly strung they are, the more liable they 

 are to feel the impression of any shock. The 

 gradual growth of manhood's vigour will strengthen 

 them, and the nervous lad is most likely to become 

 the man with iron nerve. Despair not therefore, 

 parent, because your son appears timid at the start ; 

 it is not funk, but merely a feeling of insecurity in 

 the saddle which begets a want of confidence. The 

 boy who gets on to the back of a pony with fear 

 and trembling, will cheerfully stand up to a bigger 

 boy than himself and take a hiding like a man. 

 For some reason girls suffer much less than boys 

 from nerves, and it is only in later life they know 

 the curse. 



Good nerves are absolutely indispensable to the 

 man who wishes to ride well or to be really suc- 

 cessful in anything he undertakes. It means the 

 presence of mind to act on emergencies with 



