Hints on Colt-Breaking, 83 



how one niglit before a horse-fair, a 

 stranger to that particular region loudly 

 boasted that he had the cleanest and 

 best jumper of any man in the inn. 

 This was angrily denied, and when he 

 said that Ids would clear a single straw 

 held four feet from the ground, the state- 

 ment was received with loud derision. 

 So he managed to book various one and 

 two guinea bets, till he had something 

 like twenty on, offering to do the feat 

 then and there. The horse was brought 

 out and saddled. Two men held the 

 straw between them, at a measured four 

 feet high, the owner got on, took a short 

 run, and jumped it, clean and clever, as 

 he had said. The horse teas blind, and, 

 being an old hunter, always jumped when 



