FIRST-HAND BITS OF STABLE LORE 



sent away in disgust the truth being that his 

 unusual efforts on the previous occasion have 

 rendered him muscle-sore and disinclined to try. 

 Reward and caress should follow performance 

 here as elsewhere; and remember horses as a 

 rule hate jumping. 



Water of any width is not usually met with in 

 our hunts because the dragman does not cross it. 

 If one would have his horses jump such obstruc- 

 tions, however, it is very easily taught them, and 

 despite the objection said to be entertained by 

 English horses to brooks, etc., our horses make 

 no great to-do over them. 



The education of a hunter in America is vastly 

 simplified by the fact that we have practically only 

 two varieties of fence, post and rails, and stone 

 walls. The wall is of all obstacles the easiest of 

 negotiation, and in fact, where that is the general 

 form of fence to be met with, schooling is practi- 

 cally uncalled for. There is apparently some- 

 thing about a wall, perhaps its apparent solidity, 

 that makes it, whatever its height, the most ac- 

 ceptable of fences ; nor does this fact change even 

 when the agriculturist superimposes a " sheep- 

 rail," perhaps a foot or more higher. Any 

 horse that is not a cripple, or " ricked " in the 



*74 



