SCIENCE OF FOXHUNTING. 181 



on young horses must expect to get falls, and plenty 

 of them ; and as there is said to be some method 

 even in madness, so is there some art in knowing 

 how to fall well, when fall you must. So long as 

 a chance remains of holdincc him tosjether, the 

 pigskin should not be abandoned, but when that 

 chance is gone, by your horse's fore-legs getting into 

 the ditch on the other side, throw yourself clear 

 of him, to avoid a pommelling. 



Huntsmen and whippers-in, when going at a 

 dangerous place, or expecting a ducking, throw 

 their stirrups across their horse's withers ; and 

 having often adopted this practice, we can recom- 

 mend it as advisable on particular occasions, to 

 prevent entanglement. Stirrups are no doubt a 

 very necessary and luxurious appendage to a saddle, 

 since it is not very pleasant to have j^our legs 

 dangling about your horse's sides. Moreover, to 

 ride by gripe only any long distance occasions great 

 strain upon the muscles of the thighs and legs ; 

 still, a good horseman ought to be able to ride 

 without stirrups as w^ell as with them. Losing 

 shoes is of more f]-equent occurrence than losing 

 stirrups, yet on crashing through a thick bullfinch 

 or blackthorn hedge, you may be nearly torn out 

 of the saddle and one of the stirrups lefo behind, 

 which, in a run, there is no time to recover. Some 

 men, " to one thing constant never,'' are continu- 

 ally chopping and changing their horses — like some 

 young ladies, fond of new faces. Others buy young 

 horses to make them, for those who can afford to 

 give high prices for made hunters ; but unless really 



