4.40 The Book of the Horse. 



several bruising horsemen, in which they are treated as dcmi-gods of the turf and chase, 

 but by the autobiography of at least one hard rider, who has taken as much pains to write 

 himself a brute as Dogberry did to have himself written down "an ass!" 



The difference between the " leading article " and the " following article " in the hunting- 

 field is so enormous that the two seem scarcely to belong to the same class of mankind. The 

 man who never attempts to rush to the front may be an excellent sportsman ; those only 

 are contemptible who are always trying, and never succeed in holding a place in the first 

 flight, or those who are never seen in front in the field, yet are always heard loud on their 

 performances over the dinner-table. 



Amongst the prominent horsemen in the hunting-field may be named those who have 

 made hunting the business of their lives, and always have been seen in front. These are 

 always born horsemen — wiry and long-limbed, and hard at the age when most men thicken 

 in the girth, and grow obese. Few fat men are seen often in front after forty. There are 

 those who ride to sell their horses — these include some of the very finest horsemen; those 

 who ride to be seen and admired — none ride harder if they think ladies or the reporters of 

 a sporting periodical are looking at them ; those who ride, like undergraduates, for fun — 

 ready to break their own necks, or their horse's, out of pure exuberance of animal spirits, 

 these often settle down into capital sportsmen. Finally, besides those who hunt because it 

 is the fashion, or because they have nothing else to do, or for their health, there are also 

 those who ride to hunt — who never take an unnecessary fence, and never decline anything 

 practicable when hounds are running in earnest. These last are the class whom the young 

 sportsman should study and imitate. 



Always, on arriving at a hunt, salute the master of the hounds, but do it in passing, as 

 you would royalty, and not as if you e.Kpected him to stop and shake hands. 



On board passenger-ships " Do not speak to the man at the wheel " is often written up 

 conspicuously. The same rule may be applied to the huntsman. Strangers should not ask 

 him questions. He is often obliged to reply to some perhaps important perhaps frivolous 

 questions asked by an influential member of the hunt when he is deep in thought. He would 

 much sooner be let off with a simple salutation. 



Opening a gate cleverly, and holding it open, when going from cover to cover, while ladies 

 and the grave and reverend seigniors of the hunt pass through, gains useful good opinions 

 for the apprentice sportsman. To describe how a gate should be opened would fill a page, 

 which then might not be understood. The theory is to ride your horses at the post ; 

 arriving there, to put him alongside the gate, then you are master of it. The young horse- 

 man should practise so as to be able to catch hold with either hand, in the summer ; the 

 horse also must have practice. Nothing is more irritating to a crowd than a man fumbling 

 at a gate which his horse will not approach, or which he does not know how to open. Few 

 men get less gratitude than those who dismount to open a gate that has baffled them mounted. 

 In a sharp run it is not expected that he who gets first at a gate shall do more than 

 swing it wide, except for the huntsman or the " master." 



When the hounds move off, keep them in sight or within hearing — if you can ! In a 

 woodland cover you will keep best within hearing by riding " down wind," so that the wind 

 will bring you their voices if they give cry. Old hands who know the country and the run 

 of the foxes may neglect these precautions, but even the cleverest sometimes lose a good 

 run when the pack comes upon an outlying fo.x in a hedgerow or a turnip-field, or finds a 

 wild one in a wood where the native foxes have been accustomed to hang a long time. Some 



