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would not jump, and I only got her over with the 

 help of men and ropes. I had no school handy 

 round which I could drive her, but otherwise tried 

 everything I knew. I can honestly say that although 

 I got her through a few fences, she never really 

 jumped one. I was at that time busy with a lot of 

 young horses, and as she was learning nothing I gave 

 up the contest and simply rode her about occasionally 

 and got her handy. Late in October I took her out 

 with hounds in a good grass country, and, I must 

 admit, felt far from confident. In such circumstances 

 one always gets a good start. I did, and felt I 

 must at least have a feeble try to go. I sailed 

 down at the first fence, not a conspicuously small 

 one, and to my delight she took off just right and 

 jumped it like a stag. That was good enough for 

 me, and away I went, and she never turned her head 

 or made a mistake. We only ran for ten minutes, 

 but from that morning she went steadily on and was 

 soon an accomplished hunter. I expect there was 

 some history to account for her dislike of jumping 

 in cold blood - most likely when schooling she had 

 got cast and frightened and had then defeated some 

 rough rider who tried to make her jump. In the 

 excitement of being with hounds she forgot all this. 



I remarked above that a ditch is a bad fence to 

 begin with - the young horse sees a gleam of water 

 that, frightens him. He stops and nearly slips in 

 and then' is really terrified. I have seen more 

 young horses stuck up at small ditches than any other 

 form of fence . 



Of course horses vary in the making according 

 to their breeding. As a rough rule, the commoner 

 bred ones come more quickly and easily to hand. 

 My own experience has lain chiefly among young Irish 

 horses. I have ridden them of all sorts for other 

 people, but for myself always went for very well- 

 bred ones, nearly but not quite clean bred. Such 

 horses soon learn their business as hunters, nearly, 

 but not quite, as quickly as common-bred ones. 



^uite clean-bred ones, out of training, in my 

 experience take much longer to make, and are apt 



