68 PEACTICAL HINTS FOR HUNTING NOVICES. 



that his horse was both slow and soft, and would never 

 stay a point-to-point course. Later I heard that 

 another man had ridden him and had formed the same 

 opinion as I had, and then he was sold, and again 

 went the round of a lot of country shows, winning 

 several prizes as a weight-carrier. 



In the following season a very hard man bought him, 

 but pajsed him on after riding him once, and then he 

 went to a Master of hounds, who, of course, discovered 

 his peculiarity immediately, and lastly he was sold to a 

 veteran sportsman whose hard-riding days were over, 

 and this man he suited exactly, as he was not asked 

 to do more than canter along the field roads and lanes. 

 There are various other types of flatcatchers, too, but the 

 soft horse is perhaps the most difficult to detect, as 

 he has to be bustled beyond the limits of an ordinary 

 trial before his weak spot is detected, and if he slows 

 down when an intending purchaser is galloping him, 

 the seller can so easily say that he is not quite in hard 

 condition, or that he is lazy — as some really good 

 horses are — when galloping alone, and that out with 

 hounds he will show in very different form. Then^ 

 again, there are many horses who go quietly enough 

 when trotted out, or even when galloped or jumped over 

 fences in cold blood, which in the hunting field are very 

 difficult to ride, and quite beyond the powers of any but 

 a really experienced horseman. Some horses, too, 

 take far longer than others to learn their business as 

 hunters, and are only fit to be ridden by a rough rider 

 at first. As a rule, however, these badly broken or 

 raw and excitable horses will reveal at least a portion 

 of their true character when they are tried ; but such 



