EFFECTS CAUSED BY THE SIGHT OF HOUNDS. 153 



hundred would most certainly disbelieve it; for, as the 

 old proverb says, "seeing is believing;" so when a man 

 has ridden a horse across his farm for many years, he 

 is fully persuaded that, — to use another common expres- 

 sion, — " he knows what he is made of." But the truth 

 is, he only knows what he has done, and what he can do 

 under the maximum of excitement he hitherto has ever 

 experienced; what he does not know, and indeed what 

 without trial he can have no idea of, is the enormous 

 amount of latent physical power in his horse which even 

 the sight of hounds will develop. 



For instance, in riding a hack along the road, the con- 

 fidence or, as it may be termed, the courage of the rider 

 depends not on himself, but on the strength and action of 

 the animal he is bestriding. If the nag picks up his feet 

 quickly, and pops them down firmly — if he goes stout 

 in his canter and strong in his gallop, his owner rides 

 holdly. If, however, the very same hero crosses a poor, 

 weak, weedy animal, with strait action, tripping in all his 

 paces, and with his toes sending almost every loose stone 

 rolling on before him, he declares the instant he dismounts 

 that he has been frightened ; which difference, in truth, 

 only means that, on trial, he has satisfactorily and unsatis- 

 factorily ascertained the physical powers of the first horse 

 to be amply sufficient, and those of the last totally insuffi- 

 cient, to perform the given amount of work he requires. 

 Now it is really no exaggeration to say, that the excite- 



