BUYING AND SELLING HORSES 193 



excuses can nick and skirt and yet be there, pulling 

 his horse into a stand at each fence ; why does 

 failing nerve bear so hard on the bridle and not 

 seek rather to get over quickly ? Once clean keen 

 courage is finished with you may notice how men 

 will jump big places, but from a stand. 



When the man of excuses rides along a road with 

 the wordy thruster they are worth Ustening to. 



Then there is the man who drops into a hunt 

 from nowhere, too few of him, but still one or two 

 in each hunt. 



Silent at the covert side. Silent, his keen eyes 

 alert, eager. Silent as people speak to him and he 

 watches hounds dash out. No sign of him in the 

 first mad jostle, unseen as the hard riders fan out 

 looking for a start, no word of reproach ever upon 

 him for pressing hounds. And then . . . there 

 he is, quite part of his well-bred httle horse. He is 

 generally a light weight, out right or left quite 

 alone, his eyes on hounds, his face alight now, his 

 hand moving slightly sometimes as hounds swing. 

 In a slow hunt he is a thing unseen, picking an 

 unambitious way somewhere to one side, just near 

 enough to be ready, taking the easiest places, 

 sometimes earning loud-voiced comment from the 

 talkative thruster to the effect that " he never 

 could see anything wonderful about So-and-so." 



Last type best known, and we may hope 

 after this awful war many of him will stiU be seen. 

 The fearless keen young thruster. The boy who 

 13 



