184 SYSTEM OF KENNEL AND 



some dread of being mounted by a friend. True, 

 there is an old saying about " your friend's horse 

 and your own spurs," but we never could find any 

 pleasure in riding strange horses. They neither 

 understand your way of doing business, nor you 

 theirs, so there must of necessity be doubts and 

 drawbacks until both become more intimately ac- 

 quainted. Scarcely any two horses go at their 

 fences in the same manner. Some are quite easy 

 to sit, others very difficult, a buck-jumper the most 

 difficult of all at first, but when you know how 

 your horse is going to set about it, you prepare 

 yourself for the spring. 



Double bits are more generally used now than 

 formerly, especially in the grazing districts, where 

 horses are sent at their fences rushing wildly, like 

 a bull at a gate ; and where so little is done for 

 their education as hunters, it is better to have the 

 two strings to your bow. All horses will go easiest 

 to themselves, and their riders, if allowed to go 

 pretty much in their own way, and according to 

 their formation. Those with small heads neatly 

 joined to an arched neck, with oblique shoulders, 

 will go best in a snaffle bridle ; others with ewe- 

 necks or thick jowls require a double bridle to 

 hold them together. Others, again, carry their 

 heads so high as to require a martingale, but these, 

 if too tightly curbed — we might say unnaturally — 

 a good rider will see directly that his horse carries 

 his head as it is set on by nature, and humour him 

 in that inclination as far as necessary. Anything 

 impeding the action and free use of a hunter's- 



