32 THE ART OF TEAINING AOTMALS. 



animal, is all that is necessary to bring him to an instantaneous 

 pause. He may be in a state of panic, running off with the bit 

 between his teeth in spite of every ordinary means of checking 

 him : but no sooner does he feel the stricture on his breathing 

 than he is conscious of being outwitted and nonplussed and 

 becomes instantly as quiet as a lamb ; at the same time he 

 keeps quite firm upon his legs — the check not being by any 

 means calculated to bring him down. On the contrary, from 

 the position in which it places the horse, his shoulders being 

 brought up, and being pressed back upon his haunches, the 

 check is. indeed, calculated to keep him up. 



CHAPTER III. 



ENGLISH SYSTEM OF TRAINING HUNTERS. 



OWING to difference in customs of the two nations, such 

 horses as the English hunters are not the most desirable 

 for use in this country, and the system of training adopted to 

 suit the animals to the requirements of English gentlemen, are 

 seldom called into requisition here. Still, as we desire our work 

 to be as complete as possible, and as the method of training is 

 interesting, though it may prove useful to but few of our readers, 

 we introduce it. We take this spirited description from " A 

 Holiday on Horseback," from the pen of an English writer 

 whose name is not given : 



" A light built, gaylooking thoroughbred was passing into a 

 paddock for a lesson in jumping over a swivel bush hurdle. 

 Without spur or whip, the rider — the horsebreaker's son — rode 

 the mare steadily at- the fence, and she went over without touch- 

 ing a top twig, clearing nine yards in the leap. ' The great 

 thing, sir, is to bring them into workmanlike ways ; not to be 

 fussy and flurried at their fence, so as to take off at the right 

 spot.' Then he went on to inform us that hunters should be 

 carefully handled at a very early age, if they are intended to 

 become temperate and handy. They may be ridden gently by 

 a light weight with good hands, at three years old, over small 

 fences. At four they ought to be shown hounds, but they 

 should only be allowed to follow them at a distance, after the 

 fences are broken down, for if you put them to large leaps at that 

 age they are apt to get alarmed and never make steady fencers 



