RIDING 4() HOUNDS :Jsi 



;i thorough -bred one through a thick place out of a covert in Surrey. 

 He took a sudden spring in the air from the place where he stood, 

 trying to clear the highest twig in the fence ; and being very 

 powerful in his hips, the lash of his hind legs all but unhorsed me. 

 It accounted for my having seen him throw a groom over his head 

 a few days before at two trifling fences in succession. 



Without screwing and creeping, however, no man can be sure of 

 getting over all kinds of countries. The former is most particularly 

 useful in Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, and Warwickshire, where 

 the quick is not plashed down ; and creeping is a sine qua non in 

 Staffordshire, Shropshire, Cheshire, and all those countries where 

 the hedge is put on the bank or cop. Were horses to take these 

 fences flying, it is next to impossible that they could live very long 

 with hounds. Creeping adds also very much to the safety of the 

 rider ; for if a horse take time to get on the l^ank, and will stick his 

 hinder feet firmly into it before he springs, he will have it in his 

 power to clear a ditch, however broad; and I understand this is 

 the way in which the Essex hunters are trained to get across that 

 deeply-ditched country. 



It may be said, that when a horse is creeping, hounds are getting 

 away from him. This, I admit, would be the case were he to 

 creep at all sorts of fences ; but it is only at such as are not to ])e 

 leaped flying, without distress to himself and danger to his rider, 

 that such a method of fencing is to be recommended. It must be 

 recollected, that when a horse is creeping, he is getting a puff at the 

 same time, which will enable his rider to take a liberty with him, 

 which he could not otherwise have done, by putting him along 

 merrily over the next field. 



When horses are perfect at their business, and time will allow, 

 they cannot be )-idden too slow at most sorts of fences, as the shock 

 to the frame in alighting on the ground must be, in great measure, 

 proportioned to the velocity with which they go at them. There is, 

 however, a just mean to be observed, and a good deal of judgment 

 to be used at some fences. For instance, when riding at stiles, little 

 more is to be done than giving a hunter to understand that he is to 

 go at them, and if "the puff" is not out of him, and he is a good 

 timber leaper, they are nearly as safe as any other stiff fences that a 



