ADVICE TO YOUNG SPORTSMEN' 79 



what your horse could or could not do. Throughout a 

 long experience I can say I never killed a horse, and 

 but on two occasions only really hurt one, and those 

 were due to want of condition in recent purchases. 

 Once only was I unfortunate enough to seriously 

 damage a horse, and it was unfortunate, for it was lent 

 nie. The horse was not up to my weight, and I was 

 riding through a gap in order to avoid an ugly fence, 

 and a piece of a glass bottle cut right through the back 

 sinew. Fortunately it was a mare, and she was, there- 

 fore, useful for breeding purposes, but she was never 

 able to do another day's work. I would again urge on 

 the younger portion of my readers the great necessity 

 there is for them to avoid anything in the shape of 

 jealousy in the hunting- field, as also to save their 

 horses and use their judgment as much as they possibly 

 can, and to remember that a horse well nursed at the 

 beginning of a run will ever have a leg to spare at the 

 end of it, when those of the ' flash-in-the-pan ' division 

 are either on their backs or are falling at every fence. 

 Practical experience is also necessary to bring a horse 

 Into the condition to stay through a run of twenty or 

 thirty Irish miles with but two or three momentary 

 checks ; yet our horses were not infrequently so put to 

 the test, and experience taught us how to nurse them 

 through such a severe trial. 



If bone and breeding are the first qualifications for 

 a hunter, temper is undoubtedly as important. A 

 bad-tempered horse is as undesirable as a bad-tempered 

 rider, and it is very long odds against either getting to 

 the end of a ' real good thing.' Of the two evils, bad 

 temper in a rider is, I think, the greater, and more 

 likely to bring both horse and man to grief. Many a 



