CHAPTER IX 

 SOME GOOD HORSES AND SOME FRAUDS 



FROM two-legged servants to four ; to the 

 collection of horses which I have ridden in 

 my time. 

 From Topsy the black pony, a little beast which 

 could carry twelve stone to hounds, to the present 

 stud which may be carried off to go to the war. 



Following Topsy was a grey jennet, it had no 

 shoulder and no middle, an extra girth had to be 

 put far back to keep the saddle on. It kicked like 

 a fury and had no mouth, but also no fence could 

 stop it. I have seen it on grass with its wicked 

 head just over the top of a five-barred gate, 

 simply hop over if anyone came to catch it. It 

 cleared five feet with me once, a wall which we 

 neither of us could see over. 



My mounts in my schoolgirl days were anything 

 which I could climb on to or borrow, we had no 

 horses then. A trapper which checked at every 

 fence with an air of astonishment ; oftenest of all 

 a yellow pony belonging to Harty the trainer, 

 which I used to run down for on the morning of a 

 hunt. A twelve-mile drive the day before, and the 



bitter certainty of another that night may have 



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