CHAPTER VIII 



HUNTERS 



To completely enjoy a day's hunting it is 

 necessary that the horse that carries you should 

 not only be a pleasant animal to ride, but should 

 also thoroughly understand the fences he is likelj^ 

 to encounter, for the ordinary individual hunts 

 for pleasure, and not to break horses. Yet 

 looking back over nearly fifty years of following 

 the chase, and all the great horses I have been 

 fortunate enough to ride during that long period, 

 in many different countries — horses that could 

 gallop and jump, and follow close to hounds 

 however far and fast they ran — there have 

 been very few indeed that were easy ones 

 to ride — anybody's horse, in fact — and almost 

 every one has had its own peculiar idiosyncrasies. 

 Those that have been very gentle and amiable 

 have usually been of little account, while the 

 capable, stout-hearted animals have been more 

 or less a handful to ride, especially when they 

 were fresh at starting. Of the multitude of 

 horses that are brought into the hunting-field, 

 very few, comparatively, possess the gift of going, 

 sufficient to satisfy the aspirations of the ardent 

 spirit whose sole thought is " to be with them I 



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