RIDING OVER THE SHIRES 207 



he puts it, " falls like a clot." Undoubtedly this is 

 true, but perhaps the balance is more even than 

 Dick thought, seeing that the clever old horses fall 

 more seldom. A precept that is well worth bearing 

 in mind is that when you are trying a horse before 

 buying him, you should ride him down hill, and that, 

 when you have bought him, you should give him his 

 conditioning work up hill. 



Sir Harry Goodricke, on the other hand, who was a 

 strong, resolute rider and always near his hounds, 

 rode through rather than over a country. He would 

 creep or force his horse through the hedges. In fact, 

 this plan has been followed by many heavy-weights, 

 for nothing takes so much out of a horse as jumping 

 high and big with a heavy weight on his back. The 

 combined weight of man and horse will drive them 

 through places that a light-weight will be forced to 

 jump. A proof of this is that in a strongly fenced 

 country it will often be found that the heavy-weights 

 will beat the lighter men. The latter break their 

 horse's hearts, as old John Warde used to say, by 

 continually jumping, where the impetus of the heavier 

 ones will carry them right through. It needs nerve, 

 indeed, to ride through a country quite as much as 

 to ride over it. Lord Alvanley was another heavy- 

 weight and a very bold one, who rode as much through 

 the country as over it. We learn this from those 

 curious boots of his made to cover and protect his 

 knees from the blows of branches, of which a picture 

 may be seen in Mr. Birch Reynardson's Sport and 

 Anecdotes. 



Two or three men have been noted for their power 

 of crossing Leicestershire without any apparent effort. 

 They may, indeed, be said to have glided over it. 

 It was not till their followers arrived at the fences 



