:J8-2 RIDING TO HOTTNDS 



iDuii rides at — provided, 1 should observe, there are no awkward 

 I'oot-biidges or planks on either side of them. At gates a different 

 method of riding is necessary : a horse should always be put briskly 

 at a gate, for two reasons — one, because it distinguishes betweeii 

 riding at it with the intention of leaping it, and going up to it to open 

 it ; and the other, because, if he do not clear it, he is more likely to 

 break it. I remember seeing a celebrated hard rider, who hunts his 

 own hounds, have a fall over one gate and break two more in the 

 course of the same run, and I was convinced that all the mistakes 

 were to be attributed to the quiet manner in which he rode at them. 

 His horse did not appear to be satisfied whether he were to go at 

 them or not, till he came close to them, and then he could not 

 command them with more than fourteen stone on his back. When 

 riding at park paling, or any other fence that is not familiar to him, 

 and therefore in some degree appalling, a considerable share of 

 resolution should be displayed by the I'ider to induce his horse to 

 face it. He should take fast hold of his head, ramming his spurs 

 well into him, at the same time giving him a stroke or two down the 

 shoulders w'ith his \vhip, as much as to say, "it is no use to 

 refuse." 



I am an advocate for riding rather fast at most timber fences, as 

 Ijeing less dangerous to the rider in case of a fall. As to myself, I 

 have, of course, had many falls over timber, but I never had a horse 

 fall on me, which I attribvite to generally riding briskly at it. In 

 doing so, if a horse hit it so as to Ining him down, his rider gets 

 what is called " a purl," Init nine times out of ten he is thrown clear 

 of his horse. On the other hand, when riding slow at it, if the horse 

 is suffered to stop and half refuse it (if I may be allowed such an 

 expression), the odds are nuich in favour of his quietly landing his 

 rider on the other side, and then quietly falling upon him and perhaps 

 giving him his quietus for ever. 



Taking the aggregate of countries, I will be bold to assert, that one 

 half the accidents in riding to hounds are to be attributed to some 

 awkwardness in the rider ; and in some particular ones which I could 

 name, it is next to miraculous that they do not more frequently 

 occur. A short time since I heard that a well-known owner of a 

 horse-i'epository in the metropolis had had a dreadful fall over a stile 



