RIDING OVER THE SHIRES 189 



animals we ride and adapt ourselves to them. There 

 is no way of doing this except by riding different 

 horses. Some men can only go well on certain 

 animals, and when, in course of time, these horses 

 break down or wear out, the riders perforce join the 

 ranks of those who seek no longer to be with hounds. 

 They ride about happy if two or three times in the 

 run they can see the pack, and are contented if they 

 can trace the line of a good hunt sufficiently well to 

 be able to talk it over with their friends after dinner. 

 It will be found in most cases that the men who ride 

 longest in the front rank are those whom circum- 

 stances constrain to ride many different horses in 

 the course of their career. A well-known rider across 

 Leicestershire once said that he had seen many men 

 retire comparatively early because they allowed them- 

 selves to become so attached to particular horses 

 that they could ride no others. For this reason he 

 had made a rule to sell at least two of his horses every 

 year and replace them with new ones. Every one 

 must have noticed how those who are obliged by 

 circumstances to part with a horse directly they have 

 an offer of a large price are as a rule going well long 

 after their contemporaries have ceased to ride straight. 

 It may be said, of course, that such people are more or 

 less riding to sell and that it is their interest to go 

 well. But no amount of gain in prospect will enable 

 a man or woman to ride straight to hounds over a 

 stiffly fenced grass countr}^ if the nerve is once gone. 

 On the other hand, so great is the enjoyment of taking 

 and keeping a forward place in a fast run with fox- 

 hounds, that no other stimulus is needed to spur us 

 on to make the effort if it is within our power. 



It is strange how we sometimes see the strongest 

 motives of interest fail to make men ride hard. Take 



