AFTER HUNTING 99 



than once, and I emphatically protest that this 

 is not fair treatment to a hunter even if he has 

 only been ridden second horse. For under these 

 circumstances he has been out of his stable many 

 hours and done a good day's work and it is part 

 of every horse owner's policy — or it should be — 

 to preserve a horse's energy by all the means in 

 his power. It is a waste of energy to ride a horse 

 about the road looking for a motor car. 



It may be said that railing a horse often 

 entails a ride miles in the wrong direction to 

 where the train is standing. True ; but in the 

 majority of cases where a train is used the distance 

 is too long to ride through and the horse is more 

 speedily at home than he would have been if 

 ridden through, which is a very important point. 



I have done a good deal of hunting by rail in 

 my time, but it is only a makeshift at best, and 

 I do not care for it, though I admit its utility on 

 occasion. I remember very well once that we 

 found a straight-necked fox who made a big point 

 and I was only some two or three miles farther 

 from home than I was from the station I had 

 boxed to. Of course I rode home, and I should 

 have ridden home had I been five or six miles 

 farther from home than from the station. And 

 for the simple reason that my horse would have 

 been sooner in his box than he would have been 

 if I had made my return journey by train. 



One drawback of hunting by train is that a 

 man has sometimes to hurry on in order to catch 

 the train and consequently the horse is heated 



