LET THE HORSE GO, BUT THE RIDER THINK. 163 



long, SO all the shock came on your fork instead 

 of being eased by your feet, knees, and tliiglis : 

 you also sat as young field-riders often do, as 

 if you were prepared to take flight if your horse 

 made a mistake ; that is, you sat loose ; this, riding 

 shorter will remedy : in the next place, you let 

 your horse go, in riding phrase, 'abroad;^ no 

 horse alive can go thus long together : there are 

 some, I allow, that will go without (comparatively) 

 any hold on their head on the part of the rider ; 

 such a horse is one in fifty ; and where it is the 

 case, they are enabled to go so from naturally 

 going in an unusually collected form. A horse 

 going with his head out, and dwelling in his stride, 

 is beating himself as fast as he can ; collecting him 

 will recover him, if not gone too far. Yet, sensible 

 as horses are, they will not do this of their own 

 accord, but, on the contrary, the more beat they 

 become, the more they sprawl in their going : after 

 this, they perhaps shorten their stride; but this 

 arises from being reduced to an unconnected 

 stiffened canter, if canter it can be called, and 

 then shortly, ' who ho,^ ' you^-e planted.-' 



" The next error you committed is one abso- 

 lutely unpardonable in any rider across country ; 

 want of attention to the ground you ride over. 

 If a horse has gone an improper pace across a 

 heavy field, and is then put at a fence out of it, 

 even supposing he clears it, he lands on the other 



M 2 



