240 THE STILL-HUNTER. 



When you start out hunting you naturally desire to 

 get somewhere before dark. Such a horse is also 

 quite as apt to be a fool as any horse is. There are 

 plenty of old horses that never exhibit any symptoms 

 of sensibility until you come around them with a 

 gun. 



Far better than any such stock is a good active 

 young horse. But he must have " horse sense;" and 

 so must his rider. The hunting-horse needs kind and 

 rational treatment, and above all quiet, cool, easy 

 handling. He must not be jerked or kicked for being 

 uneasy under fire. By such treatment, as well as by 

 firing over his head, you can completely ruin a horse 

 that is already quite well trained. And whipping and 

 scolding will never make him allow a dead deer to be 

 put on his back. He may allow it that time, but an- 

 other time he is liable to object most seriously about 

 the time you get it on and begin to tie it fast. He 

 should be allowed to smell of the deer as long as he 

 wishes, being patted meanwhile instead of scolded. 

 Then if he does not yield, quietly blindfold him until 

 it is firmly lashed on. If you put it on so carelessly 

 at first that it slips and hangs on his side or under 

 his belly, especially if he succeeds in kicking or 

 " bucking" himself free from it, you will be apt to 

 have trouble with him in the future. 



Sometimes a very good horse cannot resist a trifling 

 nervousness when you raise the rifle ; a nervousness 

 not born of fear, but only of expectation. In such 

 case you will have to dismount to make any sort of 

 a fine shot. And you will have to do so nearly al- 

 ways to make a very good long shot. If your horse 

 will not stay where you leave him, have a rope thirty 

 or forty feet long knotted into several large loops at 



