How TO Accept a Fall. 451 



that is, the horses frequently fell — sometimes inevitably, sometimes from want of knowledge 

 of the country, or of the horse, or simply from bad riding. A single link more or less in a 

 curb-chain will often make the difference between a hunter going pleasantly or pulling and 

 rushing. In that year I was several times severely bruised and shaken, but never broke any 

 bones or was disabled from my daily responsible duties. This is not said by way of self- 

 praise, but simply as encouragement to young horsemen in their first season. 



Rules for falling there are never likely to be of any use. Dick Christian, whose trade 

 was to manufacture hunters at steam-pace out of rare blood-horses, says : — 



"When a horse made his start to jump I always knew if he was going to fall. I prepared 

 myself: I could clap my hands on his withers, get clear of him, and keep my reins too." It is 

 quite a point of honour with hunting-men to keep fast hold of the reins in a fall if possible. 



Dick Christian was never displaced except when a horse fell ; therefore he held opinions 

 suited to a young horseman who had not acquired the instinct of sticking to the saddle under 

 the most difficult circumstances. He says : — 



"Gentlemen gets falls very bad; you see, they generally ride old horses, and old ones 

 fall like a clod. If they get into difficulties they won't try to get out. They are like that 

 when they get ten years old ; they haven't the animation of a young horse. The young ones 

 will still try to struggle themselves right, and will not touch you if they can help it. I'll 

 be bound to be safer riding twenty young horses than one old one." 



Observations in which there is a fund of truth, but which should not encourage an inex- 

 perienced horseman to experiment on any horse not really and truly a hunter. 



One of the best points about hunting is that a day's sport, whether good or bad, affords 

 a sportsman much room for afterthought. A man second in his literary and artistic accomplish- 

 ments to few members of the House of Commons wrote : " Thinking over a good run well 

 ridden is as good or better than riding it. Even a dashing rider is apt to feel some anxiety 

 (not alarm, but anxiety) as each big fence (the landing a mystery) rises before him ; but in 

 chewing the cud afterwards, how he slashes over them, knowing then what the landing is 

 to be!"* 



To this candid bit of self-confession must be added a word of much-needed advice. 

 The battle of the hunt should be fought over again in silence, or to your wife, sister, sweetheart, 

 or confidant ; at table let others talk, or talk of others. Old men, especially if they are very 

 rich, are apt to grow into egotistical bores ; but a young man who dwells on the performances 

 of himself and his horse is not only an ass, but an ass of a very offensive kind. Perhaps 

 one of the most absurd scenes for a calm bystander is a party of undergraduates after a 

 good day's hunting ; all have ridden as hard as they could, and all are talking at once of 

 the irrepressible ego. 



Not Caesar was more picturesquely brief than the huntsman who summed up a rare run 

 with — " The hounds ran like h , and the old mare carried me like ile ! " 



The following description of a first-class horseman, by the laureate of Northamptonshire, 

 was, it is no secret, meant for Colonel Anstruther Thompson, when he hunted the Pytchley 

 hounds, who was a master of hounds while still a cornet in the 9th Lancers. He stood, and 

 stands, over six feet two, had not a superfluous ounce of flesh on his bones, and with his own or 

 some other hounds hunted every day of the week in the season, from November to May, in 

 the woodlands, besides cub-hunting in August, September, and October. 



• Cli.irlefi Ruston's "Notes ol Thought." 



