56 HEART 



that he may follow out his own judgment in negotiating 

 a fence, whether the latter be an Irish bank or a 

 Leicestershire ' oxer.' Like a human athlete, a horse 

 measures his powers and stride, and having done so, 

 any undue interference with his mouth must be fatal. 

 I may also add that even if a man has naturally good 

 hands he cannot use them aright unless his seat is also 

 strong and firm on his horse. I am positively certain 

 that nine-tenths of the falls in the hunting-field are 

 caused by bad hands, and oftener than not the 

 wretched horse has to bear the blame. They are the 

 bete noire of the hunter. 



Heart, or what we Britons commonly term ' pluck,' 

 is, if equally necessary and inseparable, so to speak, 

 from the qualifications which are necessary to enable a 

 man to cross a country successfully, rarely wanting. 

 In this respect we can hold our own against the world. 

 A faint-hearted horseman, a ' funker,' is a curse to 

 himself and to his horse. Nothing is more despicably 

 piteous than the man who fears to go where his horse 

 is able and willino- to take him and he himself desires. 

 He cannot possibly derive the smallest pleasure from 

 hunting, and a very few days under such a rider would 

 completely demoralize the most perfect horse. As a 

 rule, however, the other extreme is luckily far more 

 common, though, as I have before remarked, such 

 over-eagerness is to be condemned, for many fences, 

 to be successfully negotiated, must be taken slowly, 

 and a horse must have time to look about him and 

 collect himself. I have already discussed the subject 

 of rushing at fences, and I will not again refer to it 

 further than to offer the advice of an old sportsman to 

 those who may be but entering on their career, and 



