RIDING TO HOUNDS 217 



galloping fast and that the fences are big and it 

 is not unlikely that he will feel his own horse 

 beginning to sprawl. The reasons for the 

 apparent easiness with which the good horseman 

 is sailing over a country are first, that he has his 

 horse perfectly balanced, and second that he 

 picks his ground with skill. 



It is only experience which enables a man to 

 choose his ground, and a season's experience in 

 a deep country will teach more than whole 

 volumes. Still it is as well to remember that the 

 head land is frequently the soundest going in the 

 field and that consequently galloping round by it 

 takes less out of a horse than riding him across 

 the field. This applies to grass as well as tillage, 

 especially if the grass be undrained and in deep 

 ridge and furrow as undrained or partially 

 drained land so frequently is. A wet furrow in 

 a ploughed field is generally the soundest going 

 in it. 



Is it necessary to insist that the place of the 

 sportsman is behind hounds, not in front of or 

 amongst them. A story is told of one of the 

 Meltonian thrusters of over a hundred years ago, 

 that on being asked if he had cut out the work 

 on the preceding da}^ replied in the negative but 

 added that he had always been a field and a half 

 in front of hounds. There are some men who 

 would gallop on, pressing hounds forward, even 

 if there were a brick wall in front of them. Such 

 men do not deserve the name of sportsmen. The 

 beginner will do well to learn not only when 



