The Hunter 61 



better a horse that bores than a horse that soars. You sometimes 

 see in a dealer's stables these up-headed horses. They are gen- 

 erally clean trotting-bred animals that have had their manes 

 pulled and their tails chopped off, and these are their principal 

 qualifications as hunters. Some of them can jump, and we have 

 seen this sort win at Madison Square when conformation counted 

 fifty or sixty per cent. To an experienced cross-country rider, 

 however, they look sadly out of form. 



SHOULDERS 



" Slanting shoulders " is everywhere the cry. Every author I 

 have read, and nearly every man that rides to hounds, if he 

 hardly knows the fetlock from the forelock, will tell you a horse 

 is no good for hunting without slanting shoulders. So universal 

 has this cry become that it suggests the parrot. " Slanting 

 shoulders ! Look at his slanting shoulders ! " But when you ask 

 a man why he is so fond of slanting shoulders, the usual answer 

 is : " Weil, because a hunter should have slanting shoulders ! " 

 Occasionally a man will venture to say a horse with slanting 

 shoulders can gallop faster. This is manifestly incorrect. Some 

 of the fastest horses that have ever turned a track have had rather 

 upright and sometimes even loaded shoulders. 



We must look further than simply the slant of a hunter's 

 shoulders. I am sorry to antagonize this most common belief in 

 slanting shoulders; one dislikes to sow seeds of discord among 

 pet theories. But this slanting-shoulder craze has gone beyond 

 all reason. 



POSITION OF EIDER 



Let us see if we cannot find a better reason than because, or 

 speed, or jumping qualities. Let us see if we cannot set up a 

 hypothesis that will stand more of an assault than the present 

 theories for slanting shoulders. A little reflection will prove that 

 the proper position of a saddle on a horse for cross-country work, 

 where there is jumping to be done, is one that places the rider 

 well back so that his weight comes as near the center of gravity 

 as possible. Flat racing and cross-country riding are things of 

 entirely different color. The forward seat, over the horse's 



