68 UNASKED ADVICE. 



and lots of it, is the remedy here. "Pitch into" a 

 nervous young horse, and if you keep him long enough 

 you will be possessed of a still more undesirable old one. 

 Unsoundness will cause ahorse to refuse a drop or a jump 

 on to hard ground ; and here humanity would probably 

 take one course, and vaulting ambition another, both 

 widely differing. When, however, a good horse takes 

 to refusing for no ostensible reason, do what not 

 quite everybody would do under such circumstances 

 look at the saddle ! If it pinches him, if he have 

 a sore back or the beginning of one, or if his saddle 

 hurts him in any way it requires no great stretch 

 of intellect to imagine the sensation produced by the 

 bumping down on it of a weight varying from ten 

 to fifteen stone; and the majority of riders do not 

 sit over a fence as if they were a part of the 

 horse. A well-developed chaperone, perched upon one's 

 favourite evening boot on a crowded staircase, very likely 

 produces, though in a far less degree, a sensation similar 

 to that which the horse attempts to avoid. A horse may 

 refuse certain kinds of obstacles ; some object to a bull- 

 finch. I once owned one who hated timber, and about 

 50 per cent, of hunters decline water. The last fault is 

 usually the result of unskilful handling ; sometimes it is 

 caused by an unavoidable but never-forgotten ducking. 

 If a horse jumps every sort of fence but one readily, try 

 mild measures first ; these failing, it becomes a question 

 of comparison, viz., whether he objects most to the 

 thorns of the bullfinch or the rowels of your spurs. At 

 water, however, a cutting whip (vulgar though its appear- 

 ance be) has often a more persuasive effect than the 

 spur ; besides, while applying it you can " sit tight," 

 and if the nag refuses after all, this may be an object. 



