376 HUNTING. 



FALLS. 



Although the subject of falling is not a pleasant one 

 to discuss, still we cannot ignore it, for even the best 

 horsewoman occasionally gets hurt by her horse falling 

 with her. Accidents sometimes occur over the most 

 trivial obstacles, and when least expected ; and are 

 not confined to jumping, for some of the worst falls 

 have happened on the flat. I remember Captain 

 King-King breaking three ribs and a collar-bone — a 

 pretty good dose in one gulp — by his mount coming 

 down with him on the flat when hunting in Leicester- 

 shire. The late Whyte Melville met his death by a 

 similar accident ; and poor Archbishop Wilberforce 

 was killed while quietly hacking, by his horse putting 

 his foot in a hole and throwing him on his head. 

 Unfortunately, we are unable to learn the art of falling 

 correctly, because we have only one neck, and, if we 

 break that, our experiments must abruptly cease. We 

 may, however, minimise the clanger of its fracture by 

 leaning well back at our fences, and by ducking our 

 chins into our chests when we feel ourselves coming 

 the inevitable cropper. The worst kind of fall is when 

 a horse breasts a stiff fence and either turns a com- 

 plete somersault, or falls violently on to his head. In 

 the former case, the accident generally means severe 

 internal injuries, to say the least of it ; in the latter, a 

 broken collar-bone or concussion of the brain. Such 

 bad accidents are happily rare ; for, if a horse can jump, 



