-3- 



To make horses do .lust what you want, the first 

 thing to learn, besides keeping your temper - which 

 is, of course, essential - is to ride with both 

 hands on the reins. A man who can only ride over 

 fences with one hand on the reins and the other used 

 a^ a sort of balancing pole, must abandon all idea 

 of making or even improving a hunter. He may, 

 and often does, go ver77 well on the perfectly finished 

 article, but nothing else will suit him. As a lad 

 I thought George Bird - a very fine horseman, well 

 known in the Epsom district - put a horse at a fence 

 as well as any man I ever s" . He never wore spurs 

 and hardly ever carried a whip, and used a single rein 

 ring snaffle and seldom a martingale. Carrying his 

 hands low and very wide apart, it was always a pleasure 

 to see a horse .jump with him, and I have seldom seen 

 horses more perfectly balanced and presented at their 

 fences. 



I know it is often said that you cannot "collect 11 

 a horse in a snaffle bridle, but in Ireland I have not 

 noticed that the horses ridden b:r horsemen (the pro- 

 portion of horsemen to riders is, I think, higher in 

 the sister Isle than with us) sprawl about or show 

 any sign of not being well held together, and the snaffle 

 is almost universal. As a rule, they are, I admit, 

 riding on lighter and sounder ground, but also, as a 

 rule, they are riding greener and less "made : ' horses. 

 If the English hunts were polled, there would be an almost 

 solid vote for the double bridle; but, if you could 

 lower the franchise and admit the horses we hunt to 

 the polling booth, I think it would be found that they 

 went equally solidly for the snaffle. There must, of 

 course, be good in a bridle that is so universally 

 popular with English hunting men as the double bridle, 

 but I would suggest that when a horse is found to be going 

 uncomfortably in it, it is well to remember there is an 

 alternative,' and that a snaffle should be given a trial. 



If you want to ride all sorts of horses and make 

 them carry you to hounds, I hold that you must have^ 

 patience and good temper, with plenty of determination. 



