14 HORSES FOR LADIES. 



singled out of a crowd of bays and browns, a lady 

 who is at all ''impartial " in her seat would do well to 

 select a horse wearing a less noticeable tint of coat. 

 As rearing is the worst vice a lady's mount can 

 possess, no horse who has a tendency to rear should 

 be ridden by a woman, as from her position in the 

 side-saddle she is far more helpless than a man on 

 such an animal. A lady's hunter should not have too 

 light a mouth, but should go nicely up to his bridle, 

 and not resent the use of the curb, which is some- 

 times necessary in avoiding danger. He should on 

 no account be inclined to pull. A perfect hunter is 

 like a thorough good sportsman, who regards his 

 share of bangs and blows as all in the day's work. 

 As the majority of hunters have their own likes and 

 dislikes about jumping certain kinds of fences, a lady 

 should know precisely what to expect from her mount 

 and what his jumping capabilities are, before taking 

 him into the hunting-field, which is not the place for 

 experiments. I had many pleasant days out hunting 

 with the Quorn, Belvoir, Cottesmore and North 

 Cheshire on the Irish mare. Salary (Fig. 5). 



In summing up the requirements of a hunter for 

 either man or woman, I cannot do better than to 

 quote the following sound advice from Whyte 

 Melville : " People talk about size and shape, 

 shoulders, quarters, blood, bone and muscle, but for 

 my part, give me a hunter with brains. He has to 

 take care of the biggest fool of the two, and think 

 for both." 



