384 RIDING TO HOUNDS 



be doubly hazaixlous, from the suddenness with which the animal 

 must come down. 



The advantage of what is called " a catch " to the outside heel is 

 very great in riding at timber, and most particularly so at stiles on 

 greasy foot-paths — sometimes rendered doubly so liy a frosty morning 

 succeeded by a mid-day sun. Horses will often make a pause at 

 common stiles ; but if there happen to be a foot-bridge on either side 

 of them, they are still more apt to do so, and, for the reasons I have 

 before given, falls are too often the consequence. 



Putting leaping out of the question, with some horses a catch to 

 all the four shoes is of great advantage in galloping across a wet 

 country. None but those who, like myself, have been accustomed 

 to ride all sorts of horses with hounds, know what difference there is 

 in the firmness with which some of them take hold of the ground, 

 in all their paces, when compared with others. Some have what 

 grooms call " a slathering way of going," which is tiresome to them- 

 selves, as well as most unpleasant to their rider ; and to them such 

 a catch to the shoe is almost necessary, to make them either safe or 

 agreeable, setting fencing, as I observed, quite out of the question. 

 I remember a few years since going to look at a horse in Worcester- 

 shire, that had beei:i winning some hunters' stakes in a canter, and 

 which was recommended to me as likely to make a first-rate 

 Leicestershire hunter. On trying him, I found he slipped about in 

 his slow paces to such a degree that I immediately dismounted him, 

 and gave up all thought of purchasing him. This partly arose from 

 too long a stride, and partly from a peculiar method of putting down 

 the foot, from the shoulder. 



Exclusive of brooks and timber, there is another sort of fence that 

 should be ridden at quickly, and that is, a bushy or " blackbird " 

 fence, as it is called, being a live white-thorn hedge, not plashed, but 

 with a strong suspicion of a wide ditch on the other side, and " no time 

 allowed," as the coachmen say, for looking at it. This is termed 

 " swishing at a rasper ; " and the only chance a man has of getting a 

 horse to extend himself sufficiently over it all, and to " come well 

 into the next field," is to put him three-parts-speed at it, and trust to 

 the momentum for getting over it. It was precisely at a fence of this 

 description that I witnessed the accident two years ago to Mr. 



