FOX-IIt'XTIXG IX VIRGINIA. 533 



fifteen and one-half hands high, and weigh about eleven 

 hundred pounds. It is much more difficult to find a large 

 horse, sixteen hands or upward, of that high form which is 

 essential to carrying a rider, at speed, safely over difficult 

 country. 



A man who has sense enough to value his own neck, 

 must ignore the fashionable taste in choosing a horse to 

 hunt on; and if not himself a skilled judge of the points of 

 a horse, he should take the advice of a man who is, and 

 upon whose impartial friendship he can rely. There are 

 ten good medium-sized horses to one good large horse; 

 hence it is far easier to mount a man of medium size than one 

 above medium height and weight. A small man is unsuita- 

 bly mounted on a large horse; a large man, more unsuitably 

 mounted on a small horse. 



Our best hunters do not jump their horses over every- 

 thing they can find to put them at; often they hunt a great 

 part of a season, or a whole season, without taking a single 

 considerable leap. It is not practicable to follow the hounds 

 as seems to be done in England ; for, in the first place, our 

 Foxes, in almost every case, take such a course that no 

 horse can possibly go over it. They take to the bluff, along 

 water-courses, and through pine-thickets, that no man can 

 ride a horse over or through at speed. The hunter must, 

 in such a case, perforce make a detour and strike for the 

 open ground, where he may again join the chase. 



No sensible man goes Fox-hunting for the mere sake of 

 leaping his horse over fences and ravines; he goes over such 

 places when the exigencies of the chase render it necessary. 

 He does not leap his horse over a stone wall if there is an 

 open gate three rods out of his line, unless he is riding for 

 the brush, close to the hounds in the act of running into 

 the Fox. A good hunter rides fearlessly when he has a 

 rational object in view, and always judiciously, reserving 

 his own powers and those of his horse to be put to the test 

 when necessary. He takes no stock in the absurd cavort- 

 ings of the riding academy. It is also true that our Red 

 Foxes run farther and faster than any horse whatever can 



