RIDING TO HOUXDS 383 



with the Hatfield liouiids, ami there was little hope ol liis I'ecuvery. 

 " My life for it," said I, " that was some awkward trick or other ! "' 

 Upon inquiry, I found it was occasioned thus : — Forgetting old Dick 

 Knight's advice to My Lord Spencer, he rode up to the stile to see 

 how he liked it, and in the act of " craning " to peep at the other side 

 of it, his spurs ran into his horse : the horse made a spring, chucked 

 his rider over the stile, and then tumhled on the top of him. 



Now had this good citizen lost his life by this pantomimic 

 exhibition, and I had been the foreman of his inquest, do not for a 

 moment imagine that to either horses, hounds, or hunting, should 

 this melancholy catastrophe have been attributed. No ; there should 

 have been no " Accidental Death " — no deodand on the hoi'se — for I 

 should have depicted it as one of the clearest and best-delined cases 

 of " fclo de se." Had he ridden his horse like a workman at the 

 stile, all, no doubt, would have been well, and he might have annised 

 himself with looking at it some other time. 



My experience has taught me that many falls over timber arise 

 from horses not having a catch to their shoes. I have for many 

 years insisted on the necessity of the outer heel of the fore, as well 

 as the hinder, shoes being turned up for hunters that are to be ridden 

 over a country ; for if a horse stops at a fence of this description, and 

 his legs all get together under his fore parts, his power of springing 

 from the ground is destroyed. As to the injury which many people 

 apprehend from the fore feet not having in this case an equal bearing 

 on the ground, I confess I was never able to trace any to this cause, 

 with horses that have been properly shod in other respects ; for 

 during the winter months, when either on the road or in the field, 

 the " turned-up " heel, as it is called, will always sufficiently indent 

 the ground to produce an equal bearing to the foot. With respect to 

 the danger of a horse over-reaching, and catching the heel of the fore 

 shoe in the inner edge of the hinder one, it is entirely to be obviated 

 by having that edge bevilled down, and made lilunt, as I have before 

 directed. Without this precaution, accidents of this nature have 

 occurred ; and in a particular instance in Surrey, a few years ago, the 

 shoes were obliged to be taken off' the horse of a gentleman's hunts- 

 man, by a blacksmith, before he could be released from his perilous 

 situation. Fortunately, his rider escaped injury ; but such falls must 



