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riding to hounds. Take a case, for Instance, when 

 you are tearing along beside a thick, impregnable 

 fence, with hounds running hard on the other side of 

 it, and apparently bending from you. Suddenly you 

 come on a hole through which you can pop. With a 

 handy horse you can pull up short and jump into the 

 same field as the hounds, but with a puller it is 

 different. You have to estimate how long it will 

 take to stop him, and whether it will be better to 

 hold straight on and chance the swing of hounds away 

 from you not being serious, or to set to work to 

 stop and turn your over-resolute horse. Quickness 

 is a great asset in riding to hounds, and that is why 

 I insist on the handy horse that fits you. 



I have seen a few men go marvellously well on 

 pullers, and Custance, in his book of "Riding Re- 

 collections," tells of Captain Trotter coming out 

 with the Quorn on a horse on which he had the most 

 powerful tackle that could be invented. Yet the 

 horse galloped straight through a strong flight of 

 rails, straight through the pack, and ran away for 

 two miles. He goes on to tell how Captain Trotter 

 brought the horse back and finished his day on him. 

 He bought him that evening for a small sum, and even- 

 tually made him into a very good hunter and sold him 

 for a large one. 



But then we are not all Jock Trotters. Probab- 

 ly no better or more powerful horseman ever got into 

 a hunting saddle. Whatever horse found itself be- 

 tween his legs became a hunter. I saw him once on 

 the first of October, in one of the latest seasons 

 I have ever known, take on a very strong section of 

 the Pytchley country, riding a horse that knew very 

 little, anyway, when Trotter started on him that 

 morning. The country, except that the going was 

 soft, was in exactly the same condition it had been 

 all summer, and when I add that he was then far from 

 young, the reader can judge what manner of man Jock 

 Trotter was. My advice is, leave those sort of pul- 

 lers to such men, and there are not many of them. 

 A moderate puller, if not old, can very often, by 

 mild bitting and careful handling, be entirely cured. 

 A great many men, of course, are not happy unless 

 their horse takes hold to a certain extent. I don't 



