126 Cross Country with Horse and Hound 



refused a fence ? Who has not felt more sorry for the 

 horse than for the rider when both have fallen ? The side 

 of the horse is marked with a great clot of blood. A hun- 

 dred times the spur is used for the once that it ought to be. 

 A hundred times it is used by accident or unintentionally for 

 every occasion when it is necessary. How many times has 

 one seen riders, in going through woods, stab their mounts 

 in the side as their legs are bumped against trees or saplings, 

 or again when they duck their heads to clear a limb ! Is 

 it any wonder that some horses hate hunting, and cringe 

 and shiver when the groom hands them over to the 

 tormenter ? 



Many of us fail to appreciate what a gulf separates the 

 horse who hunts with an incentive in his own head from the 

 one who is driven on by pricks and stings. They are as 

 wide apart as love and hate. Let me admonish you, my 

 novice reader, whatever you do, take your mount into the 

 game on equal footing with yourself. You may not always 

 think alike. You must expect to be annoyed, discomforted, 

 and perplexed. But keep this in mind : you are the part- 

 ner, with your greater degree of intelligence, from whom 

 must be expected the greater degree of forbearance. 

 Superior horsemanship, let me repeat, is distinguished from 

 inferior horsemanship by ability to adapt one's self to the 

 horse. It is only novices or the uncultivated in horseman- 

 ship who insist on making horses conform to their ways. 



** What ! " some one protests, " would you put yourself 

 on a level with the brutes ? " 



Precisely. It is impossible for " the brute " to move to 

 your exalted state of intelligence. Seek, therefore, to 



