244 PRECEPT AND PEACTICE. 



of taking bis fences, and there were thirty to be 

 taken in the course marked out, be actually loses 

 half a minute in the race — quite time enough to 

 beat him. 



X. Y. Z. says, '* For instance the peculiarities of 

 buck -jumping, which, I believe, Irish horses almost 

 invariably do.'* Here, with submission, I consider 

 him quite in error. I have had, when in Ireland 

 for some years, opportunity of seeing, owning, and 

 consequently riding, Irish horses, both in walled and 

 bank and ditch countries ; have seen many steeple- 

 chases there, seen trial leaps and wager leaps ; but 

 I cannot say I observed Irish horses in a general way 

 more prone to buck-jumping than others. 



Buck -jumping, of course, owes the origin of the 

 term to the bounds we sometimes see fallow-deer 

 make in passmg us. I say fallow deer for this 

 reason : during several seasons I at one time hunted 

 with the Queen's hounds, I never saw a red-deer 

 attempt such feat. In leaping — and I have seen 

 some hundreds of leaps taken by them — I always 

 remarked the red-deer to jump precisely as the 



