246 THE COMPLETE FOXHUNTER 



awkward hunting wicket, and will, in point of fact, act 

 exactly as if they were riding a horse which has not a 

 kick in it. 



Our experience is that certain horses will always 

 kick at other horses which come too close to them, and 

 during the last few weeks of the season many mares, 

 which are steady enough at other times, are not to be 

 trusted. But it is unquestionably the duty of the rider 

 of a kicker to keep him wide of the crowd, so wide 

 indeed that he can do no harm. The man who is on 

 a confirmed kicker has no right to take his place at a 

 crowded gate; he is bound in all fairness to find another 

 road for himself, and if he loses a run, he must accept 

 the loss as the penalty entailed by hunting a kicker. 

 How much damage is done by these kickers there are 

 no statistics to show, but we have twice seen a man's 

 leg broken by another horse in the hunting field, and 

 scores of hounds are killed or badly hurt every season. 



Curiously enough there are horses which do not kick 

 at other horses but will invariably kick a hound, and 

 when this vice is discovered the greatest care should 

 be taken to keep such horses well away from the pack. 

 As for the horses which cannot be cured of the habit of 

 kicking at other horses, they are not fit to be hunted, 

 and should at once be relegated to some of the lower 

 walks of horse enterprise. I n these days ' ' fields " are too 

 large for kickers, and owing to the presence of so much 

 wire in the country there is more danger than there 

 used to be, because it is so often necessary for every 

 one to rush to some particular unwired place — possibly 

 an invitation jump — or to a gate. Crowding, then, 

 must be of very frequent occurrence, and the kicker 

 much more out of place than he was a generation ago, 

 and this fact cannot be too generally recognised. There 



