SCIENCE OF FOXHUNTING. 181 



on young horses must expect to get falls, and plenty 

 of them ; and as there is said to be some method 

 even in madness, so is there some art in knowing 

 how to fall well, when fall you must. So long as 

 a chance remains of holding him together, the 

 pigskin should not be abandoned, but when that 

 chance is gone, by your horse's fore-legs getting into 

 the ditch on the other side, throw yourself clear 

 of him, to avoid a pommelling. 



Huntsmen and whippers-in, when going at a 

 dangerous place, or expecting a ducking, throw 

 their stirrups across their horse's withers ; and 

 having often adopted this practice, we can recom- 

 mend it as advisable on particular occasions, to 

 prevent entanglement. Stirrups are no doubt a 

 very necessary and luxurious appendage to a saddle, 

 since it is not very pleasant to have your legs 

 dangling about your horse's sides. Moreover, to 

 ride by gripe only any long distance occasions great 

 strain upon the muscles of the thighs and legs ; 

 still, a good horseman ought to be able to ride 

 without stirrups as well as with them. Losing 

 shoes is of more frequent occurrence than losing 

 stirrups, yet on crashing through a thick bullfinch 

 or blackthorn hedge, you may be nearly torn out 

 of the saddle and one of the stirrups left behind, 

 which, in a run, there is no time to recover. Some 

 men, " to one thing constant never/' are continu- 

 ally chopping and changing their horses like some 

 young ladies, fond of new faces. Others buy young 

 horses to make them, for those who can afford to 

 give high prices for made hunters ; but unless really 



