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yoor head that you must hold on, your first thought as 

 you hit the ground is : "Have I got them?" That being 

 so, you can generally snatch the reins before your horse 

 has time to move, if in the shock of falling you have 

 let them go. 



Once at a Sunday luncheon party I made some such 

 remark, and a youth who had never done much hunting 

 assured me he found that to hold on to his reins was 

 sheer instinct — so strong indeed was this instinct 

 that I gathered he could not let go even if he wanted 

 to. That was a Sunday. On Monday he fell close be- 

 side me, a gentle fall of whose coming he had ample 

 warning, for the horse blundered on for a length or two. 

 Yet for once, it appeared, the instinct was not in work- 

 ing order, and the horse trotted away. I could have 

 caught it, but fear I was brutal enough to make little 

 or no effort to do so, as I thought some work on foot 

 might revive the instinct, or at least prevent its being 

 so much in evidence on Sundays. 



In falling, the main thing is to keep your head, 

 know just what your horse is doing, and be ready to take 

 advantage of any chance to save yourself. Don t sit 

 too tight when it's a decided and hopeless fall, and if 

 your horse has been on your leg and foot, give them a 

 quick shake as he rises. The fall may have pressed 

 stirrup and foot into the mud, and it then requires a 

 good shake to get the stirrup off the boot. 



I saw a good instance of quickness once at Punches- 

 town, and although it has not an actual bearing on hunt- 

 ing falls, it was interesting. An enormous field had 

 started for a farmers' race. At the second fence, as 

 they poured up the course towards the stand, a horse out 

 with a lead fell. I had my glass on him, and the 

 jockey was up at once. He seemed to recognise that he 

 was right in the middle of the course, that the horses 

 were too close on him to give him any chance to get to 

 one side or the other. In another second he was down, 

 presenting his stern to the oncoming rush of horses, 

 and tucking his head in almost between his knees, clasped 

 his two hands behind it to protect the base of the skull. 

 All was done like lightning, and then he was lost to 

 sight in the tearing rush of horses. An English friend, 



