RIDING TO HOUNDS 



MOST men, as soon as they have got a 

 horse and leisure and have gained some 

 httle insight into the rudiments of horse- 

 manship, find their thoughts turning to the hunt- 

 ing field. Most young men do, and many men in 

 middle life are occasionally — nay frequently ver^^ 

 keen sportsmen. And here and there, even amongst 

 those who begin late, we find a genius who has 

 dropped from the clouds, as it were, into the 

 first flight. One of the very best men to hounds 

 I ever saw in any country had been very little 

 if at all in the saddle before he was thirty. He 

 had the most hberal ideas of a horse's capabilit}^ 

 for jumping, and what was more to the purpose 

 such beautifully light hands that his horses 

 rarely came to grief at even the most ' out- 

 rageous ' places. 



And if a man's age or lack of nerve prevents 

 him riding to hounds there is plenty of fun to be 

 got by riding after them. 



Of course I would not for a moment suggest 

 that everyone who buys a horse and goes to the 

 trouble of learning to ride has hunting as the 

 ultimate object of his painstaking, but undoubt- 

 edly a great many have. And equally without 



