HORSE FOR GRASS COUNTRIES 237 



was very secure. He leaned back a good deal at 

 his leaps, so was seldom unseated and always gave 

 his horses plenty of rope at the jumps." * Now, this 

 is undoubtedly the right way, but it presupposes 

 that the horse can take care of himself. It will be 

 found that all the greatest riders to hounds adopted 

 the same methods, but they almost always either 

 bought good horses or made them. 



A horse that was stupid by nature or training 

 would have beaten even such horsemen as Lord 

 Willoughby, and indeed he had at least one horse he 

 could not ride ; and everybody else would tell the 

 same tale if their experiences were written down. 

 Some horses, no doubt, like some men, are fools by 

 nature, but many of both are made so by bad training. 

 Now, I am not going to suggest any far-fetched 

 methods of educating a horse. I believe in school 

 training for the hunter as well as the charger or the 

 hack, and I am sure that good results come from 

 taking notice of your horses in the stable and speak- 

 ing to them gently both out of doors and in. I have 

 a habit myself, which I believe in greatly as estab- 

 lishing a good understanding between the horses and 

 their owner. During the hunting season my horses 

 have a feed at ten p.m. This I generally give my- 

 self, taking a stable lantern and the key and going 

 round and feeding each horse and speaking to him 

 when the stable is quiet. This may be merely a fad, 

 and many people would not take the trouble about 

 it ; but I am firmly convinced that it has made some 

 eager, excitable horses much pleasanter to ride. 



But, putting on one side such fanciful practices, 

 I believe greatly in a man hacking his hunters him- 



* •' Lord Willoughby de Broke : In Memoriam." Baily's Magazine, 

 1903, p. 198. 



