2o8 RIDING FOR LADIES. 



important kind ? Such animals are not wanted for show, 

 as are their more gaudy brethren the park hacks, 



I hke to see the ribs of all riding-horses long in front of 

 the girths, and short behind them. This keeps the saddle 

 in the proper place, which it is hard to do (without the aid 

 of the old-fashioned crupper) where the ribs in front are 

 short. 



The race of genuine covert hacks is, I am sorry to say, 

 apparently fast dying out. Go, for instance, to any ordinary 

 meet of hounds in almost any hunting country — you will 

 see votaries of the chase arriving in every variety of 

 vehicle : in phaetons, dogcarts, waggonettes, on drags and 

 in broughams, on the backs of horses that they mean to 

 hunt, on "general utility" animals, on fine park hacks, 

 brought out to be admired and then cantered home again 

 along the roadside grasses, or hand-galloped through the 

 fields where convenient gates abound — but the number 

 of real covert hacks will be very small indeed. I suppose 

 the reason is, that in this troublous age, few (in Ireland at 

 all events) can afford to indulge in luxuries, and a good 

 hack is one, in the very fullest sense of the term. 



I do not believe, although many do, that it spoils a 

 saddle horse to put him in harness. Were I rich enough to 

 possess a number of hunters, I should drive them in a four- 

 horse drag during the summer months, and I believe it 

 would do them an immensity of good. A covert hack of 

 the useful sort makes an excellent trapper, or one of a 

 pair in a brougham or waggonette— nor does he lose any 

 of his saddle qualities by being so made use of.' 



