2o6 FOX-HUNTING IN THE SHIRES 



For, while some perfect horses will jump if ridden at 

 their fences with but the lightest pressure on their 

 mouths, others need to be taken by the head lest 

 they refuse. This is one of the difficulties that 

 practice, experience, and a knowledge of your horse 

 must help you to decide. Every one, however, 

 must have noticed how much more pleasantly those 

 horses jump which require the least pressure. 



Plenty of rein on landing, too, is the secret of avoid- 

 ing falls. On this point Dick Christian has some- 

 thing to tell us. He was a fine horseman, as we all 

 know, and in his lectures, which every one should 

 read, there are many excellent hints based on an 

 amount of practice that it is given to but few people 

 to have. For many years Dick Christian rode horses 

 at fifteen shillings a day, in order to make them into 

 hunters. Thus, what he did not know about horses 

 and riding is not worth mentioning. 



He was a great advocate for what he called " setting 

 at liberty on a horse. A man's body should be all 

 loose, but he should be firm in his thigh. You 

 shouldn't be able to see under 'em when you're behind 

 'em." A little observation in the hunting field will 

 show us how seldom this latter condition is fulfilled 

 by hunting men. Yet if a man rolls in his saddle, if 

 he has not ease and liberty, be sure that he must be 

 steadying himself by his horse's mouth. This it is 

 that makes so many horses unpleasant to ride. 

 Dick, too, preferred young horses to old ones, for he 

 thought them safer, and he was probably right. Yet 

 most unquestionably an old horse that knows his 

 business is more pleasant to ride. The idea that 

 Dick had, and one that a great many people share 

 with him, is that the young horse is quicker to extri- 

 cate himself from a difficulty, while the old horse, as 



