2o8 THE COMPLETE HORSEMAN 



changing type of fence which he will have to 

 encounter. Here there will be the slashed 

 hedge, thick at the bottom, fairly stiff but of 

 reasonable height ; then the post and rail or park 

 paling will be encountered ; anon, wide and 

 with rotten banks perhaps, and without any spirit 

 of compromise about it, the brook. The bull- 

 finch will be encountered occasionally, though 

 not very frequently now perhaps, except in the 

 Shires. Occasionally too there will be found a 

 fence at the top of a bank. All these require 

 treating in different ways, and if the beginner 

 should cast his lot in a fiat country he will find that 

 most of the obstacles will have complications at 

 one side or other of them, or both, in the shape 

 of fairly wide and deep and certainty very dirty 

 drains. 



There are all kinds of theories about riding at 

 fences and there is perhaps something to be said 

 for all of them, and yet none of them are to be 

 implicitly relied upon. The fact is that in riding over 

 a country emergencies occur in w^hich a man must 

 make up his mind quickly how to act and if he 

 makes a mistake disaster is sure to ensue. It is 

 only experience which will enable him to act 

 promptly and correctly when the difficulties 

 arise. There are however certain broad rules 

 which it is well to bear in mind at all times. It 

 may I think be said to be a fairly established 

 principle that it is a sound plan to ride steadity — 

 even slowly at big fences and fast at water, but 

 even those broad principles require modification 



