ON HUNTING. 159 



too hard a pull brings him into the ditch, if there is 

 one. By holding your hands with the reins in each 

 rather wide apart as you come towards your fence, and 

 closing them and dropping them near his withers as he 

 rises, you give him room to extend himself; and if you 

 stretch your arms as he descends, you have him in hand. 

 But the perfect hunter, as long as he is fresh, does his 

 work perfectly, so the less you meddle with him when 

 he is rising the better. 



Young &]5ortsmen generally err by being too bold and 

 too fast. Instead of studying the art in the way the best 

 men out perform, they are hiding their nervousness by 

 going full speed at everything, or trying to rival the 

 whips in daring. Any hard-headed fool can ride boldly. 

 To go well when hounds are running hard — to save 

 your horse as much as possible while keeping well 

 forward, for the end, the difficult part of a long run— 

 these are the acts a good sportsman seeks to acquire 

 by observation and experience. 



For this reason young sportsmen should commence 

 their studies with harriers, where the runs are usually 

 circling and a good deal of hunting is done slowly. If 

 a young fellow can ride well in a close, enclosed hedge, 

 bank, and ditch country, with occasional practice at 

 stiles and gates, pluck will carry him through a flying 

 country, if properly mounted. 



Any horse that is formed for jumping, with good loins, 

 hocks, and thighs, can be taught to jump timber ; but 

 it is madness to ride at a gate or a stile with a doubt- 

 ful horse. A deer always slacks his pace to a trot to 

 jump a wall or park rails, and it is better to slacken to 

 a trot or canter where there is no ditch on either side to 

 be cleared, unless you expect a fall, and then go fast, 

 that your horse may not tumble on you, 



