64 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 



pointment," unless the animal be able to maintain the 

 requisite pace. And yet in a run it does not at all follow 

 that the leading horse is the fastest, that the hindmost is 

 the slowest, that a heaving flank is an indication of im- 

 paired lungs, or a still one of good wind. On the contrary, 

 it is often but too true that the first ought to have 

 been the last, and the last the first; so much depends 

 on the manner in which the different horses have been 

 ridden. 



When a man, pursued by a detachment of cavalry, is 

 riding to save his own life, or when, at the risk of his 

 life, he is trying to take away that of a poor little fox, 

 success in either case depends of course on the pace at 

 which he can proceed. Now it is a very common mistake 

 in both the instances we have named to endeavour to 

 attain the desired object by maintaining, like the seconds- 

 hand of a clock, an equable rate, whereas, just as a ship 

 spreads out and unreefs all her canvas when the wind is 

 light, and before a hurricane scuds away under bare poles, 

 so should the pace which a rider exacts from his horse 

 depend on the state or character of the ground he has to 

 traverse ; that is to say, he should hold him together and 

 save him through deep-ploughed land, race him across 

 light, dry turf, grasping the mane, go slowly up the 

 last half of an ordinary hill, spin him very fast indeed 

 down every declivity, and in jumping fences endeavour, 



