200 RIDING, DRIVING AND KINDRED SPORTS 



No horse Is ever kept long at a time in the 

 school, it is so easy to sicken him of jumping". 

 Then he was led over a small, made course, and 

 finally ridden with a wonderful steady old hunter 

 whose years numbered over twenty and whose 

 wisdom was like that of a century of equine 

 experience. Then came a season's hunting. 

 At first the youngster was very hot and fidgetty, 

 and his rider was obliged to keep him away 

 from the other horses, while he plunged and 

 half-reared and bucked to get away for a gallop. 

 All he wanted was a romp, and at last he got 

 it. It was a clear, bright morning with a touch 

 of east in the wind and a bite in the air, when 

 hounds dropped on an outlier as they were 

 going to draw and raced him to ground in a 

 drain fifteen minutes later. We all sat down 

 to ride, and the little blood horse led the whole 

 way, jumping a fair country and getting away 

 of his own accord on the other side of each 

 fence. This was the making of him ; he was 

 taken home with the glow of victory on him, 

 and from that day was a game and gallant 

 little horse, winning several steeplechases in 

 fair company. His owner, who rides and wins 

 a certain number of such races, though quite in 

 a small way, believes, and rightly, that the 

 amateur trainer should slip the work into them 

 quietly, and, as it were, without their knowing 



