THE BARB AND THE BRIDLE. 



127 



to a lady's comfort in the hunting field, I can furnish them with the 

 names of the people in Melton and elsewhere who can give them 

 -every detail. 



Having our pupil accoutred as before described, and taken her to 

 a quiet farm, the instructor should pick out a line, start at a walk in 

 front of his charge, pop his horse quietly over the fences, and see 

 that his pupil does them with equal coolness and without rush or 

 liurry. When she can do this well, the pace should be increased to a 

 steady canter ; and the master riding beside her should be careful 

 that she steadies her horse three or four lengths before he takes off, 

 always riding him well into the bridle. 



This kind of practice should be continued for some days, until 

 the pupil is quite at home at her work, and the master should then 

 proceed to instruct her as to the mode in which to make her horse 

 "crawl" through gaps and crooked, cramped places, and do "on 

 and off " jumps and doubles. The animal best adapted for this sort 

 of practice is one that is clever rather than fast. An Irish horse, 

 out of a ditch and bank country, is preferable. But the instructor 

 should take special care, by first doing these "on and off" jumps 

 "hi in self, to ascertain that the banks are sound; otherwise there is 

 danger of just the worst kind of fall a woman can have. We have 

 lately had a lamentable instance of this in the case of a noble lady, 

 one of the most brilhant horsewomen in England. 



For my own part, I am entirely against a lady jumping her horse 

 in the field at any place where there can be the slightest doubt as to 

 good foothold, unless she is preceded by a man to pUot her. If the 

 latter gets down, he can always (assuming him to be a good work- 

 man) get clear of his steed, whereas at these rotten places a lady and 

 her horse are likely to fall "all of a heap," and injury greater or 

 less is a certainty to the rider. 



Not long since I saw a little girl, about ten years old, riding with 

 hounds on a mite of a pony which was as clever as a monkey. The 

 little heroine took a line of her own (no doubt she knew the country 

 well), and kept her place among the foremost for some time ; pre- 

 sently she disappeared, and we found her impounded, pony and all, 

 up to the back of the latter in a piece of rotten ground which had 



