10 L THE HUx\TING-FIELD. 



side in a state of absolute exliaustion ; it pumps, 

 as it were, every breatli of wind from his lungs, 

 and prostrates every power of his frame. You 

 may see a man put his horse at an increased pace 

 at a fence, and sometimes very properly so ; but if 

 he knows what he is about, he has taken a pull at 

 his horse for a few strides before doing so, which 

 gives him power, like the race-horse thus handled, 

 to make a rush when called on. Timing this at the 

 critical moment makes the difference between a 

 Buckle, Chiffney, Jem Robinson, and such men, 

 and the senseless, pully-hauly, cut-and-thrust 

 riding of a calico-jacketed would-be jockey. It 

 does not come to so nice a point in hunting, but 

 the principle must be acted on if we mean to see 

 the end of a trying run. 



" I believe you found something like this to be 

 the case when I came up to you ; your horse was 

 too much blown to rise at the fence you put him 

 at ; and if he had done so, he would probably have 

 rolled over helpless, and possibly broken his neck 

 on the other side ; having my eye on you, I ex- 

 pected as much, when I saw you crossing that 

 ridge and furrow. You don^t seem to like timber 

 much, so instead of keeping straight, as I did, on 

 firm ground, you went round to a fence you liked 

 better, and then had to try and make up lost 

 distance on a half-blown horse, over a description 

 of ground as trying as any in the world ; no 

 horseflesh living could stand this, unless it was, as 



