138 RIDING FOR LADIES. 



of his body, that he is going to do something that will 

 stamp him as a villain, and if these indications are accom- 

 panied by a backward turning of a very whitened eye, look 

 out at once for your life ! Many horses will, however, give 

 no warning of any kind, and they of course are the 

 most dangerous sort. Thoroughbreds are quite dreadful 

 in this particular. They will kick when going a brisk 

 gallop. I have twice had my hat lashed by the tails of high 

 kickers — and the most stunning fall I ever got in my life 

 was through being caught napping by one of these volatile 

 gentlemen, who pretended to be going up to his bridle in 

 the most collected manner possible (when exercising one 

 day in frosty weather, in a wood), and suddenly shot me off 

 like an arrow from a bow ! — so high, too, that to this day I 

 am ready to swear I saw the tops of the bare elms, while 

 the force of my contact with the ground, when at length I 

 came down upon it, gave me concussion of the spine, from 

 which I suffered for several succeeding months. 



A horse that kicks must be ridden in a severe bit, except 

 in cases where it is only an ebullition of spirits. Where 

 this is the case, ride him hard, and get it out of him ; when 

 it amounts to an actual vice, you must keep him partially 

 in order by using a bit such as I seriously decry for other 

 forms of misdemeanor, and when he begins his unpleasant 

 pranks get his head well up, so that he can't force it 

 between his knees, and bend him round until you compel 

 him to turn. By doing this a few times he will probably 

 leave off kicking. 



To ride a kicker in the hunting-field is highly injudicious 



