TRAINING THE HUNTER 29 



It is obvious that a horse, to become a perfect 

 hunter, must go through some of his school- 

 ing with hounds, but there is a good deal of the 

 preliminary schooling which might and ought to 

 be done at home, and which is generally left to the 

 hunting field. In the first place, it is essential that 

 a horse should not be alarmed at or kick at 

 hounds, and to prevent such a contretemps the 

 best plan is for the owner of the young horse 

 to walk a couple of puppies and keep them 

 in the stable with his pupils, who will soon become 

 familiar and friendly with them, and so, as a 

 natural consequence, he will take little notice of 

 hounds when they come across him in the hunting 

 field. In the meantime a word of warning may 

 be given to the man who rides a young horse, or, 

 for the matter of that, an old horse in the hunting 

 field. It is not vice but fear which causes a horse 

 to kick at hounds nine times out of ten, and 

 therefore it is incumbent upon the rider to keep 

 a careful look-out that hounds don t come too 

 suddenly behind his horse. In the early part of the 

 cub-hunting season young horses, if they are taken 

 out at all, should be kept out of the rides and at a 

 distance from hounds, for the young hounds have 

 not yet got to know their work, and when they 

 miss their companions wid^run up to any horse 

 they see in the rides in their search for their 

 huntsman. An excellent plan, and one which 

 should always be adopted when possible, is to let a 

 young horse see hounds as frequently as possible 

 when driven in the long reins, taking care, of 

 course, to keep out of the way of hounds. He will 

 be much handier when ridden, though of course he 

 will require careful watching all the same. 



