Spurs 125 



tions like a slave, and has to be rowelled over the fences and 

 quilted between them. That some men regard their horses 

 as nothing more than machines on which to " get there " 

 is apparent to any casual observer. The abuse of the spur 

 in the hunting-field has left a bloody trail over the other- 

 wise clean record of many a sportsman. I believe that 

 spurs are wholly unnecessary to a hunter if they are never 

 used to begin with. You may get a horse over a jump 

 with them, but the after-effects are as bad as spurring your- 

 self on with whisky. It is the abuse of both that I am 

 speaking of. The actual necessity occurs probably once in 

 fifty times, but from this once riders get into the habit of 

 using them indiscriminately. If a horse will not go through 

 a run without this tormenter working in his flanks, one 

 may know he is not a true sportsman or has not had proper 

 schooling, and had better go back to the trainer or be sent 

 to the harrow where he belongs. 



"Shall I never wear spurs?" I am asked. 



Yes, if you never use them. 



"But shall I never have occasion to use them?" 



I cannot prophesy for any one's future. I have ridden 

 to hounds more or less for the past twenty years, and never 

 used them since my first two or three seasons. A touch of 

 the crop or cutting whip is quite enough. 



Custom seems to have dulled our sensitiveness to the 

 inhumanity of spurs. If we stop to think, how horrible it 

 is to see a comrade thrown over his horse's head, leaving a 

 trail of blood on his horse's neck from the saddle to his ears ! 

 Who has not turned aside rather than see the sharp rowels 

 of a spur ploughing across the loins of a horse that has 



