RIDING TO HOUNDS 215 



riding to a pilot however good that pilot may 

 be. When a man first begins hunting he will be 

 wise if he adopts the plan of riding to a pilot, 

 taking care to select a man whom he is capable 

 of following and being especially careful not to 

 ride ' in his pocket.' Indeed jumping in the 

 immediate wake of a leader is an unpardonable 

 offence, and though it is often done without any 

 ill consequences sometimes the result has been 

 serious enough. Always give a man plenty of 

 room to get away, and ride a little to the right or 

 the left of the man you have honoured — prob- 

 ably without his knowledge — in making your pilot. 



The sooner a beginner realises that with the 

 majority of the obstacles he has to encounter in 

 the hunting field it is immaterial where he jumps 

 them, that the difference in height or width is so 

 small that it is not worth his while going out of 

 his way for a smaller place, and the sooner he 

 begins to strike out a line for himself and to 

 avoid the crowd the better and the more he will 

 enjoy his hunting. For he will then be relying 

 on his own judgment and if he be a keen observer 

 and thinks about w^hat he is doing he will see a 

 great deal more of what is worth seeing by pur- 

 suing the independent plan. 



When a man begins to strike out his own line 

 the first thing he must do is to make up his mind 

 as soon as he gets into a field where he is going 

 out of it, and having made up his mind he must 

 not change unless the place he shall have selected 

 is, for one reason or another, impracticable when 



