PFRCHASIiN'G HOESES. 1/7 



that a good pony could compass, and would carry us 

 safely over : these kind of fences rarely occur in the 

 line of a steeple -chase course, where those who mark 

 it out take care (not having to ride over it themselves) 

 that the fences shall at all events be big enough. It 

 is greatly to the safety of steeple-chase riders that 

 this is done, for though smaller, if blind fences were 

 in the line the casualties would be awful. Thus you 

 see that horses' going in steeple- chases in different 

 counties does not bring them to the knowledge and 

 cleverness we want in the hunter, their chief practice 

 being at large fences, and their chief merit a certain 

 turn of speed to finish a close race, a qualification 

 not requisite in the hunter. There can be no doubt 

 but that a tractable, good-tempered steeple-chase 

 horse would be in a straight-forward country, where 

 the leaps are large, and do not occur often enough to 

 tease him, a superior hunter ; but these horses are 

 not accustomed to be checked, to take some fences in 

 a slow canter, others in a trot, and again, some in a 

 stand. They might in time, if not irritable, be 

 brought to this ; but then the result would be, they 



