270 HORSEMAXSHIP. 



is once pulled up, and turned around, it is not so 

 readily acquired again, as he is always more or less 

 alarmed, after having got a sight of what he is 

 going to encounter. Wide brooks, then, with un- 

 certain banks, are the only fences wdiich should be 

 ridden at very fast ; for, exclusive of the advantage 

 the horse gets from the impetus derived from speed, 

 should he fall on the other side from false ground, 

 he will generally save himself from dropping back- 

 wards into the brook, an object of no small import- 

 ance to him, as also to his rider. There are, how- 

 ever, exceptions to the rule of riding fast at brooks. 

 When they are not wide, and the banks are sound, 

 it takes less out of a horse to put him at a mode- 

 rate rate at them. Neither should he be ridden 

 quickly at them when they overflow their banks, as 

 it will then require all his circumspection and care 

 to know when, or where, to spring from, to cover 

 them. In fact, overflown brooks are rather formid- 

 able obstacles ; but (a fine trial of hand) numer- 

 ous instances do occur in the course of a season, 

 where they are leaped when in that state by some 

 of tlie field, but not by many. 



Although, when the sportsman rides over a very 

 wide brook, or any other fence which requires much 

 ground to be covered, he has a certain hold by his 

 bridle ; yet, as may be supposed, it is very unequal 

 to the weight of his own body, increased by the 

 resistance of the air. How happens it, then, that 

 his horse does not leap from under him ? or, at 

 least, how is it that, when the horse alights, the 

 rider alights in the very same spot in the saddle on 



