The Hunter: His Conformation 25 



the reflection that if he is not as good as he should be, he 

 might have been worse. Remember this, too, that it is 

 the part of horsemanship to fit the rider to the horse rather 

 than to try to make the horse fit the rider. The greatest 

 and best thing of all is to find in a horse an agreeable 

 companion. A man will get on better with an old farm- 

 horse that fits him than with a two-thousand-dollar quali- 

 fied hunter that does not. 



I have heard some men declare that no horse likes hunt- 

 ing. I am positive this is a mistake. No horse would 

 like hunting with some men, but most horses with the 

 proper conformation for saddle work do enjoy hunting 

 when they are properly ridden. I have seen and schooled 

 many green horses that from weanlings took readily to 

 jumping, and several that when turned into a runway would 

 jump back and forth over the hurdles of their own accord. 

 I have had several green horses that, as soon as mounted, 

 would of their own accord start away to the schooling- 

 ground. Of some of these it has been hard to say whether 

 they enjoyed the sport or not until they met hounds, and 

 then they were as ambitious to get on with them as the 

 rider, and not from excitement or fear, as one could tell by 

 the collected way in which they jumped, but from sheer 

 love of the sport. At a check other horses could come 

 and go, but directly hounds moved they were off. I 

 am speaking now of green horses. To some horses hunt- 

 ing is an irksome task that never becomes anything but 

 work or drudgery ; yet I believe that a large number of 

 well-bred horses, providing, mind you, they are not pun- 

 ished at their jumps by severe hands or spurs, really enjoy 



