HUNTERS 137 



sixteen one or two hands high, able to gallop at 

 a great pace, and to jump high and wide. A 

 sticky horse, that might be excellent among the 

 hills, would be an abomination in Leicestershire, 

 where, so long as he covers plenty of ground in 

 his leaps and gets up high enough to clear the 

 fences, it does not greatly matter whether he 

 misjudges the distance a little, and takes off a 

 foot or two too soon. A horse that would be an 

 unpleasant, even a dangerous, mount in some 

 countries may be a perfect one elsewhere, and 

 when big flying fences have to be encountered 

 plenty of dash and courage are required to 

 surmount them in safety. 



A sticky horse that must stop and look before 

 it leaps is quite useless in the Midlands for a 

 hard rider, for many of the fences there met 

 with would be quite impassable barriers to such 

 a steed, and the man who rode it would perforce 

 be obliged to perform the role of a looker-on 

 whether he wished it or not. It would be 

 absolutely impossible for him to take a place 

 amongst the gallant leaders, who cut out the 

 work at the tail of the flying pack. Yet that 

 very horse in a totally different country might 

 be a real treasure to an ambitious rider who 

 wanted to keep with hounds in a rough, intricate 

 district, where a careful, clever horse is the first 

 necessity, and where a dashing animal might 

 soon land its rider in difSculties the more sober- 

 minded steed would be sure to avoid. 



For three years the writer hunted an animal 

 with a good deal of Arabian blood in it, which 

 was the very best horse he ever rode amongst 

 moorlands, able to gallop its best pace over 

 the heather without putting a foot wrong ; that 



