RIDING FOR PAY OR PLEASURE. 109 



"VYell they earn tlieir money ; but Avhen gentlemen 

 ride hunting they pay, but are not paid for it ; so 

 they expect to be carried pleasantly, and at least 

 moderately safely. Pray, have you ever mounted 

 your crack ? ^' My friend allowed he never had. 



" Thcn/^ said I, " yon have a great treat in 

 store. I wish you a pleasant ride and many of 

 them ; let me, however, tell you, if you attempt 

 to ride the brute with hounds, he will break your 

 neck. Such ungovernable rushing horses will 

 sometimes go for a time without a fall, but their 

 great fault is that, not having temper to learn to 

 husband their powers by taking their fences ju- 

 diciously and coolly, when at all exhausted, so as 

 not to be able to clear them in their usual way, 

 they come down headlong, and not unfrequently 

 ' cur it,^ and do not attempt to rise at anything. 

 I know of few cases in which a man would 

 probably deceive himself more in getting togethei' 

 a stud than by attempting to select them from 

 steeple-chase horses. The best attributes of the 

 best of them, which is racing finishing power at 

 the ending post, while it raises them to a mon- 

 strous price for steeple-chasing purposes, would 

 be but a secondary qualification in a hunter. ^^ 



The little steeple-chasing mare next came out, 

 and a nice little animal she was, and had all the 

 look of a good one, but at the same time had that 

 frightened appearance about her that we often sec 



