456 The Book of the Horse. 



nerve^a very useful class. These perfectly well know how to take care of themselves. 

 Young ladies may derive many useful hints by noting, in silence, their performanres. But 

 there are a very considerable number of ladies who like, or would like, hunting, but who are, 

 not unwisely, unprepared to expose themselves to " serious accidents by flood and field ; " who, 

 when hounds are running, prefer galloping round to a bridge, at the risk of losing a run, to 

 the chance of a ducking ; who decline to have anything to say to gates that cannot be burst 

 open, or the bullfinches which are taking toll in rags of scarlet coats. As observed in a 

 previous chapter, a lady who can gallop without losing her breath or her nerve, who can sit 

 her horse in comfort over the average leaps, will, even in a flying country, with the assistance 

 of the numerous hand-gates that are put up in all fashionable counties, and the many gaps 

 tl it are established by the advanced guard of men, see a great deal of sport, and have 

 quite as much riding as is good for most women, without doing anything to be talked 

 about. 



Ladies of this, which I will call second class, who are really well mounted, and who 

 really possess the courage which proceeds from skill and fairly good nerves — not the audacity 

 which is the result of ignorance and vanity — are a delightful addition to the pleasures of the 

 hunting-field. They are happy, and they look graceful and contented. They do not alarm you 

 by attempting feats which, unless perfectly well mounted, are much better left to men* 

 They do not shock your taste by familiarity with persons who, though very well in their 

 saddles, are not fit familiar companions for a lady — at least, a young lady. A middle-aged 

 woman of fortune can do anything she likes without exciting the anxious sympathies of 

 lookers-on, whether she is ducked in a brook or rides home in a fly tete d tete with a horse- 

 breaker. 



The young ladies who really are a nuisance in the field are those who, with neither seat 

 nor hands, or mounted on coarsely-bred, under-conditioned brutes, with " lovely heads and 

 flowing tails," will, in the hopes of exciting admiration, thrust themselves into positions in 

 which they are as much out of place as in a Grand National Steeplechase. If their galloway 

 jumps at all, they are continually asking some victim for a lead. They help to crowd into 

 a gateway when hounds are getting away, although they have no more chance of riding 

 straight through three fields than of jumping a twenty-foot brook ; and they are as loud in 

 calling attention to merits, beauties, and performances of an animal that would be dear at 

 twenty pounds, as if it were one of the beauties of the Brocklesby stud. The fault of these 

 young ladies — they are generally young, and often very charming on foot — is that they do 

 not accept their proper position, which is in the third class of the hunting-field, with the 

 old squires who have lost their nerves, the fat farmers on fat green colts, and the numerous 

 tribe who love hunting, but honestly admit to themselves that they have not the least idea 

 of keeping up with the hounds if the pace much exceeds ten miles an hour, or the leaps are 

 beyond the powers of a sporting donkey. 



Guided by local knowledge, these old hands rattle away along bridle-roads, by short 

 and crafty cuts through woods, farmsteads, dells, and dingles, and continually turn up in the 

 most unexpected places, close to the pack, to the infinite disgust of the young gentlemen 

 who, having honestly ridden every yard, feel themselves robbed of half the credit of their 

 performances. 



" If your horse is not up to your weight or to the countr)'," or if your nerve is not 

 equal to the work of the day, the fault of having attempted and made a ridiculous failure 

 is multiplied tenfold by pretending afterwards that you did or could but for some accident 



