HORSE FOR GRASS COUNTRIES 239 



to pay and how many horses we can keep. These are 

 most important matters to a man who is thinking 

 of a season in the Shires, for on the determination 

 he comes to with regard to them will depend in all 

 probability not only the place he selects to go to, but 

 the amount of pleasure he will have when the serious 

 business of hunting really begins. We will take these 

 three points in order, and on our decision as to the 

 kind of horse we want, or perhaps, to be more accurate, 

 on the sort of horse we can ride, will depend in part 

 the decision come to on the other points. 



As we have no occasion to make-believe, the first 

 thing is to take stock of our own capacities as a horse- 

 man. Here we may consider not only what we can 

 do when fairly well mounted, but what experience 

 we have had. For, without long practice in the 

 hunting field, the faculty of taking not so much one's 

 own line across country as the best and most effective 

 line, is likely to be absent, and so is the rider during 

 the greater part of the run. If, however, a man has 

 hunted all his life, from the day when he scrambled 

 about on a rough pony to the time when he contem- 

 plated a season in the Shires, and if he can honestly 

 say that no matter in what provincial country he 

 has hunted he has generally been able to see the 

 greater part of most good runs, he need not be afraid. 

 He will be soon able to find his way across Leicester- 

 shire as across his native fallow. Nor is it necessary 

 to have learned horsemanship in the hunting field, 

 for I have noted that men, like those from the colonies, 

 accustomed to the saddle generally ride well over the 

 grass. 



If, then, we have the skill and the experience, the 

 best kind of horse is a big, bold, well-bred animal who 

 will go where he is put without a lead. I say a big 



