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game) is to ;*udge his fences accurately and instantly. 

 Ho will get falls while learning, but if he has good 

 horses, good nerves, and a quick eye for the best 

 place in a fence, he will soon find that when hounds 

 are running fast there are in most countries very 

 few unjumpable fences. I use the word fast advisedly. 

 Horses will face and clear places when hounds are running 

 hard and their blood is up that they will turn from in 

 a slow hunting run. lere is no surer way of spoiling 

 a gallant horse than forcing him into big fences when 

 hounds are hunting slowly. A good hunter soon knows 

 all about it, and if you drive him through some nasty 

 thick place and arrive in the next field with a scramble 

 and then have to stand still, he thinks you are a fool, 

 and he is quite right, too. e you ask him to 



jump such a place he refuses. I really cannot write 

 about riding to hounds without mentioning my dearly-loved 

 and very perfect grey mare Bessie. She knew everything 

 a hunter can know. In a slow hunting run, although at 

 such times I never took liberties with her, she would 

 sometimes whip round at a hairy fence. She knew 

 perfectly well there was no hurry, and rather seemed 

 to suggest we should look for a pleasanter place or let 

 somebody else bore the hole; but in a quick thing she held 

 very different views. If we got well away she as good 

 as said: "All right master, trust me; we will keep our 

 front seat". If we failed it was never her fault, and 

 under those conditions she would face gallantly and freely 

 any fence I ever dared to ride her at. 



That point of having two styles of riding, one for 

 the slow huntj lg runs and one for the quick things, is, 

 I t3 important. It is the best preventative of 

 refusals that I know; good horses ridden in this way 

 should never turn their heads when going really fast. 

 It is a cure, too, for the fault of showing off - coming 

 suddenly out of a crowd and charging a big and unnecessar:/ - 

 fence to impress onlookers with 7rour prowess - and such- 

 like cont< ptible proceedings. 



A lad may learn much by selecting a really good first 

 flight man as his pilot, but for a time only; it must 



