42 A UTHOR'S horse B Y BASHFUL 



run the risk of failure ; and it is as well to try and avoid 

 this as far as possible, and he should also be aware of 

 the diseases which render the breedinor of useful and 

 valuable horses of any class impossible. He should 

 never, therefore, breed from either a sire or dam which 

 is unsound in the wind, subject to megrims or 

 staggers, that has what are termed ' dirty hocks ' or 

 navicular disease. For although it is possible, by the 

 careful selection of sire or dam, to improve their 

 progeny, it is impossible to prevent hereditary diseases 

 discovering themselves if either sire or dam are so 

 affected. Broken wind is, perhaps, the worst of all. 



As I have observed, I have been the fortunate 

 possessor of several very compact little horses, which 

 were very perfect hunters. Amongst them, one by 

 Bashful was an especially clever horse. He had a 

 habit of ' kicking back ' at everything, no matter 

 whether gates, timber, or walls. On one occasion, 

 when stag-huntina I came to an iron s^ate, which, 

 having a padlock and chain to it, led me to suppose it 

 was locked. As I had the lead and wished to keep it, 

 I put him at it, and he cleared it ; but in kicking back 

 at it as usual, he kicked it open, it being only shut to, 

 and not locked, as I thought. Mr. Leonard Morrogh 

 thanked me for my courtesy in opening it for him. In 

 those days there were few men who preferred jumping 

 timber or gates to banks, either in Meath, Dublin, 

 or Kildare ; but all the same, I consider that every 

 hunter worthy of the name should be taught so to jump 

 when required. 



On another occasion I was riding a horse of much 

 the same stamp, and I put him at a five-foot wall, coped 

 on the top, being ignorant that there was a small river 



