214 HANDS AND LEGS (AIDS). 



fashionable hunt could rarely use with propriety for its 

 legitimate purpose of bringing up straggling hounds and 

 other work that would come within the province of the 

 whippers-in and huntsman. Such aid might at times be ap- 

 propriately rendered at that undress function, cub-hunting, 

 and with small provincial packs that are not well supplied 

 with hunt servants. In ordinary cases, the only use of 

 the thong is for the end of it to be wrapped round the 

 rider's hand, when he is opening a gate, so that he may 

 not drop the whip by accident. 



The way sanctioned by custom for carrying a hunting crop, 

 is that of holding it with the loop up (Fig. 190). When the 

 rider does not want to use the thong, he coils the slack of it 

 round the palm of the right hand, beginning at the lash, and 

 then grasps the crop. If he wants to be ready to crack the 

 whip, he may hold the lash in the right hand ; or may leave 

 the thong hanging down. In cracking a hnnting whip on 

 horseback, the rider should make his upward and downward 

 cuts in a vertical plane, parallel to and a little away from 

 the side of the animal, so that he ma}' not accidentally hii 

 him. 



There are two principal varieties of the ciitting zvhip : one, 

 the usual old-fashioned pattern, which tapers gradually off 

 from the butt, and which has a leather-covered handle 

 placed between two mounts that are, as a rule, silver plated. 

 The other, which has a projecting butt specially made to 

 prevent the whip slipping out of the hand of the rider, and 

 which on that account is particularly well suited for race 

 riding. A cutting whip should of course be well balanced, 

 so that it may be light in the hand. x'^lmost all good 

 horsemen who use a cutting whip, like it to be fairly stiff. 

 This is a practical point that I must leave to the judgment 

 of the rider ; as I cannot give any exact directions on the 

 subject. 



