

THE RIDER. 203 



a fence on his own feet, comes to the ground with his legs in a 

 stiff unyielding line at any rate, if he does so once, he will 

 take good care not to do so again ; and the principle of ' give 

 and take ' holds equally good on horseback. We were lately 

 turning over the pages of the ' Life of Atwt/ierTom Smith,' 1 and 

 came across a case in point. When this gentleman was hunt- 

 ing the Craven country, he came one day to the wall of Elcot 

 Park, six feet two inches in height. The hounds made their 

 way through the holes left at the bottom for game to pass, and 

 the field made for a door. Mr. Smith, however, rode at the 

 wall. The first time his horse refused, but the second time 

 they cleared the desperate leap. On reaching the ground on 

 the other side, however, the horse's fore-legs gave way, and he 

 came down on his chest, his rider's feet being dashed with such 

 violence against the ground that when the rest of the field came 

 round through the door they found him unconscious, and it was 

 three weeks before he could get again into the saddle. This 

 story is accompanied by an illustration from the pencil of the 

 adventurous sportsman, and from his attitude in the saddle, the 

 body thrown very far back and the legs thrust very far forward, 

 the chief wonder of the reader must be that Mr. Smith was not 

 very much more seriously injured than he was. 



Nor can the young rider be cautioned too much against 

 that still so common practice of raising the whip-hand in the air 

 while taking a fence. It not only prevents him from giving 

 that support to his horse that may be necessary on landing, but 

 it also throws the body off its balance, and, as a necessary con- 

 sequence, tends to destroy the balance of the horse as well. It 

 is really a more evil practice than that other one, which is 

 occasionally seen, of grasping the cantle of the saddle. If any 

 support is needed, placing one hand on the pummel of the saddle 

 as the horse descends is far better than ' catching hold behind.' 

 This in the case of old and heavy riders, when * creeping ' a drop 

 fence, may occasionally be condoned, though hardly recom- 



1 Sporting Incidents in the Life of Another Tom Smith. This is the 

 Mr. Smith to whose Diary of a Huntsman there is an allusion in ch. ii. 



