244 THE COMPLETE FOXHUNTER 



he was also gifted with great determination, and had 

 been in his younger days a bold horseman. He did 

 not like to be beaten either, so he struggled on with the 

 pair, and it became quite a usual thing for him to be 

 seen galloping round and round a big enclosure when 

 hounds were going away, because he could not hold 

 his horse. By Christmas-time he had brought both 

 horses to a slightly better frame of mind, but hunting 

 was stopped by frost, and after two or three weeks of 

 inactivity the horses were worse than ever. 



The puller, having been continually ridden by a man 

 who could not hold him, had become a confirmed run- 

 away, and the rusher not only rushed more, but now 

 chanced his fences, and had also taken to pulling hard 

 between the jumps. The owner tried all sorts of bits, 

 gave his horses double exercise, and put them on a 

 short allowance of corn. He also had their rough edge 

 taken off by a strong, early gallop on hunting morn- 

 ings, but it was all of little use, and although he 

 continued to hunt them to the end of the seasons, the 

 horses always had the best of it, and their rider's season 

 was completely spoilt. 



A really good horseman can of course succeed with 

 ninety-nine awkward horses out of a hundred, but the 

 average rider should always get rid of any horse which 

 has a bad fault ; and perhaps the greatest fault which a 

 hunter can have is to be a runaway. Kicking is bad 

 enough, but people will avoid a kicker when he carries 

 the danger signal in the shape of a red ribbon in his 

 tail, whereas a horse which bolts will often, when he 

 has taken complete charge of his rider, make straight 

 for the thick of the crowd, and set half a dozen other 

 horses off their balance. 



And apropos of kicking and the red ribbon, we have 



