i86 THE COMPLETE HORSEMAN 



when he has a fall. Insist on it that he is no 

 worse, and will be all right in a minute, and if he 

 has not been spoiled by molly-coddling he will not 

 disappoint you. 



I know one gallant horseman who owes his 

 present brilliant position in a great measure to 

 the excellent manner in which he was brought up. 

 He was an only son and yet he was never spoiled. 

 '' I want my son to be a man " said his mother, 

 and he has fulfilled her hope. When he was 

 quite a young boy he was out hunting in rather 

 a big country. He rode well then and rode a good 

 pony. He also had a very liberal idea of its 

 leaping capabilities and now and then came down 

 in consequence. On the day in question hounds 

 were running hard and he sent the pony at a wide 

 brook with not very good banks and the result 

 was an awful cropper. His mother who jumped 

 the brook a little to his right caught the pony and 

 said '' Here you are, here's your pony, be quick 

 or we shall lose the run,'' and tears were in her 

 eyes though none in her voice as she spoke. And 

 the lad answered to her challenge though he must 

 have been a bit knocked about, and he saw the 

 end of the run, and when he was asked how he 

 felt said he would be all right to-morrow. 



There are many men who may have had some 

 little experience of riding when lads and who 

 never have an opportunity of practice till perhaps 

 they are well on to the forties when, being able to 

 afford to keep a horse, their love for horses 

 returns to them in double force on account of 



