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fences that you can force him over, or, if the worst 

 comes to the worst, pull him over with ropes. When 

 you take him out hunting don't overface him, and be 

 careful never to ride him at a fence near a gate which 

 people are passing through. When he does refuse, 

 stick to it and get him over. It is far better to lose 

 one run and defeat him than to lose your place in many 

 by riding a confirmed refuser. Of course there are 

 certain fences over which it is impossible to force a 

 horse. If I entirely failed I always let the horse 

 know I was very angry with him and punished him. I 

 have found this plan answer more than once. Horses 

 are clever enough, and know perfectly why they are being 

 punished. 



I remember bitterly and well a case in point during 

 a good hunt with the Bicester. I was riding a queer- 

 tempered, clean-bred mare, when at a little brook about 

 ten or twelve feet wide she refused and fairly defeated 

 me, costing me the hunt. We had not been running for 

 long, but in coming down to the brook we had crossed 

 some charming flying fences, over which she had been 

 jumping very big, covering, I would dare to say, at least 

 sixteen to twenty feet at each; that made the "stick-up" 

 even harder to bear and more trying to the temper. I 

 feared I should never be able to depend on her again, 

 and as I had no means of pulling her over, I had to turn 

 away; but before doing so I determined to administer 

 a terribly severe hiding. I knew that with such a mare 

 it was probably a case of "make or mar," "kill or cure," 

 but she was not a nervous one, and I risked it. The 

 case went in my favour and the verdict was "made" and 

 "cured." The very next day I hunted her we "met," as 

 our Irish friends say, a much bigger brook, and although 

 a man refused just in front of her, my mare swung over it 

 in her stride, nor did she ever again give trouble at 

 water or any other description of fence. It was, 

 however, an exceptional case, and such severe punishment 

 should only be resorted to when ether means have entirely 

 failed. Refusers, of course, vary greatly in their 

 habits, but my experience is that the horse who refuses 

 far back from a fence seldom gives much trouble. The 

 pig who stops in the last stride, with his chest almost 

 against the fence, is the most difficult one to defeat. 



