160 SPORTING REMINISCENCES 



wonderful. No stone wall was too big, she had a 

 mouth of silk and could be twisted like a pony. 

 It was Con who said he got no prices for his horses, 

 never a price, and who grunted out when I told 

 him he did not trim them up. 



" Don't I thrim thim up to hounds ? " he said. 



I saw Miss Magner once refuse, hurl herself 

 against her banks, buck like a fiend and really do 

 her best to break her own neck. Major Sweetman 

 was riding her. We both missed the hunt and 

 were tr5dng to make up, but she was too dangerous 

 to go on. 



That evening I found that the stuffing of his 

 saddle had come together in the middle, and taken 

 a clean piece out of her back. She was a very 

 fidgety mare and would not go if she had anything 

 wrong with her. She is pensioned now, though 

 only thirteen. She got enlarged hind fetlocks, 

 and though she went her hunts last year, she had 

 lost her dash and fire, and suffered terribly when 

 she came in. And a fall over wire with the Black 

 and Tans with Major Sweetman finished her. 

 He loved her and once pounded a whole field on 

 her. 



Little Barry was another very good horse, 

 fourteen or fifteen now, and as lively as ever. 



A few real frauds I must mention, and queer- 

 tempered ones. 



Beggarman, a seventeen-hand brown not trained 

 until he was six, who in his first experiences always 



