RIDING TO HOUNDS 185 



It frequently happens that the horse himself rolls after 

 he falls, and if in the direction in which his rider lies, is 

 apt to crush and injure him. Indeed, there is scarcely any 

 hard rider who has not been thus served ; but here, again, 

 self-possession often stands his friend. When he sees the 

 body of his horse approaching him, he frequently saves 

 himself by meeting it with one of his feet, and, by obtaining 

 a fulcrum, shoves his own body along the ground out of his 

 reach. Coolness in this hour of peril likewise serves the 

 sportsman in another wslj. Instead of losing hold of his 

 reins, and abandoning his horse to his own will, as the man 

 who is flurried at this time invariably does, he keeps them 

 in his hand — if not always, perhaps in nine falls out of ten 

 — and thus secures his horse. 



CHAPTER XIII 



RIDING TO HOUNDS— THE CHOICE OF A 

 HUNTER 



The modern hunter, to " live the pace," must be a blood- 

 horse, or one of those very best of stout cocktails who, with 

 four-fifths of " blood " in them, pass dealer's muster as 

 thorouDjhbreds. His heicjht should be not under fifteen 

 nor over sixteen hands ; over the latter he will scarcely be 

 handy through dirt and at his jumps, under the former 

 standard he cannot so well measure the height of the object 

 before him. True, some exceptional and wonderful, if not 

 quite credible, cases are in tradition of the jumping of cobs 

 and galloways, but these are so very exceptional that they 

 do not invalidate the general rule, that under fifteen hands 

 is too small, and over sixteen is too big for a hunter. 



In a work like the present, which aims at giving the 

 best thoughts of the best thinkers, and the experiences of 

 the most practised upon the varied and numerous subjects 

 of which it treats, it would be unpardonable to omit the 

 neatest sketch of what a modern hunter is or should be, 

 as depicted by that facile iirince'ps of hunting writers, 

 " Nimrod," in his celebrated article, " The Chase " : 



"The half-bred horse of the last century was, when highly 

 broken to his work, a delightful animal to ride ; in manv 



