36 PRACTICAL HINTS FOR HUNTING NOVICES. 



all made for some farm buildings, where there was a gate 

 into the park. There was a tremendous rush up a 

 narrow lane, the girl's horse became unruly, and bucked 

 several times. As a matter of course, she touched it 

 with the spur, and it bolted up the lane to where there 

 was a farm gate, opened about 4:ft. The horse made a 

 dash and got through ; but the girl's habit — habits were 

 worn much longer then — caught in the fastener of the 

 gate and was torn from top to bottom, pulling its wearer 

 off. She, luckily, was not hurt, but she dropped into 

 a pool of liquid mud, and had to go home in the 

 farmer's cart rigged out in the clothes of the farmer's 

 wife. This came of wearing a spur, and much more 

 recently I saw a great weight -carrying hunter bolt 

 down a muddy lane with a lady, who did not join the 

 hunt again for an hour or two. Her horse had stopped 

 after a while — as some runaways will do when they 

 find themselves alone — but the man who went after her 

 found her trying to take of! a spur, and she has never 

 worn one since. 



Spurs are very much a matter of fashion, and are 

 only necessary for horses that are stubborn and inclined 

 to refuse. A really willing hunter who will do his 

 utmost does not require a spur ; but men all use them, 

 and many acquire the art of moving their horse about 

 with the slightest touch of the spur. But such men 

 never by any chance hurt a horse with the spur, unless 

 they do it by accident in a fall. Women, on the other 

 hand, can only wear one spur, and it is no finish to the 

 toilette, because it is generally hidden. And the side- 

 ways seat does not allow the foot on which the spur is 

 worn to be in quite the proper place for spurring, so that 



