HUNTING 137 



turn at it. The etiquette of the field is that after a 

 refusal you must at once go to the "end of the line," 

 for nothing is more annoying to the rest of the field 

 than the persistent refuser, who tries again and again 

 at the same panel, eventually making all the other 

 horses refuse. Had he waited for a lead, he might 

 have gotten away in half the time. Excepting in 

 countries where there is much wire, there seems no 

 reason for the single-file approach to fences that one 

 sees so much over here, and one can only explain it 

 by saying that possibly most people prefer a goose- 

 like manner of progression to acquiring the courage 

 necessary to take the " first bloom off a fence." 



Even more disagreeable, and far more dangerous 

 than the refuser, is the person who doesn't wait until 

 the rider in front is well over the jump, but jumps 

 almost into his pocket. As a general rule, when such 

 a person is out, I prefer to have him ride in front of 

 me rather than behind, for, in case of a fall, the one 

 that is leading will be jumped on and get the worst 

 of it! Of course, there are times in which one is 

 mounted on a hot-tempered horse, when all of us 

 have inadvertently committed this crime, but if we 

 were called down for it, or, more likely, sworn at for 

 doing it, we rightly deserved it. The horse that 

 can't be held in the field has no business there but 

 should be taken home. Equally dangerous, and even 

 less excusable, is the abominable habit of cutting 

 diagonally across and jumping some one else's panel, 

 thereby either causing the other horse to refuse, or 

 upsetting him so that he bungles the jump. The 

 rider who is approaching the fence in a straight line, 

 even if he is farther away from it than you are, always 

 has the right of way. 



