72 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 



been ten or twelve hours out of his stable, with apparent 

 cheerfulness, he brings his rider home, yet it is the latter 

 only that then proves to be "as hungry as a hunter," 

 while the exhausted stomach of the "vrai Amphitryon" 

 — the real hunter, remains for many hours, and sometimes 

 days, without the smallest appetite for corn or beans. 



If this plain statement be correct, leaving humanity 

 entirely out of the question, how ignorant and contempti- 

 ble is that man who is seen during a run not only to be 

 spurring his horse with both heels whenever he comes to 

 deep ploughed ground or to the bottom of a steep hill, 

 but who, just as if he were singing to himself a little 

 song, or, "for want of thought," whistling to himself a 

 favourite tune, throughout the run, continues, as a sort 

 of idle accompaniment to his music, to dangle more or 

 less severely the rowel of one spur into the side of a 

 singed hunter, who all the time is a great deal more 

 anxious to live with the hounds than he is ! But, as 

 dishonesty is always the worst policy, so does this dis- 

 creditable conduct produce results opposite to those ex- 

 pected to be attained; for instead of spurring a poor 

 horse throughout a run hastening his speed, it has very 

 often put a fatal end to it. 



In riding to hounds it occasionally happens that a 

 resolute, experienced hunter, knowing what he can break 

 through, what he must clear, and who has learned to 



