-'7<s THE IIL'XriXC; FIELD 



means nine-tenths of the annual falls are procured. A horse 

 worthy the name of a hunter would very seldom fall or make a 

 mistake if left to himself. Let a man watch a loose horse, or 

 even a raw foal, followin.L; the field, and see how safely, slowly, 

 and easily, they go over places that some men and some horses 

 terrify each other into believing are all but impracticable. 

 Who has not seen horses throw arches, like the dome of 

 St. Paul's, over places little wider than water furrows ? 



There was a neat little jaundice-backed book published a 

 few 3'ears ago b_\- Muxon. of Dover Street, called " Hints on 

 Horsemanship to a Nephew and Niece, or Common Sense 

 and Common Errors in Common Riding, b}- an officer of the 

 Household Brigade of Ca\'alry,"" which, barring the officer 

 authorship, always an objectionable paternit\- in our mind, 

 gives a greenhorn as much instruction as it is possible to 

 derive from books, and contains, besides sundry instructions 

 about how to get on and how to get off, the following very 

 sensible observations on the subject of pace: — " I cannot finish," 

 says he, "without (.me word to deprecate a piece of inhumanity, 

 practised as much, perhaps more, b}' ladies than gentlemen — 

 the riding the horse fast on hard ground " (our author might 

 have included our old friends the Grooms, for whoever saw one 

 that did not select the centre of the road, and how many do we 

 see clattering along making up for lost time, seeming as though 

 they were tr\ing ho\\- soon they could wear the horse's legs 

 out). " I pray them to consider," continues our author, "that 

 horses do not die of old age, but are killed because they are 

 crippled ; and that he who cripples them is the cause of their 

 death, not he who pulls the trigger. The practice is as un- 

 horsemanlike as it is inhuman. It is true that mone)- will 

 replace the poor sla\es as j-ou use them up, and if the occasion 

 requires it, the}- must, alas ! be used up; but, in my opinion, 

 nothing but a case of life and death can justif)- the deed. If 

 the ground be hard and even, a collected canter may be 



