HORSE FOR GRASS COUNTRIES 253 



than elsewhere, putting aside such famous packs as 

 the Belvoir and the Warwickshire, I should not like 

 to say, nor that they are faster ; but still the fact 

 that they are on grass makes the average of pace 

 much faster, and a horse is kept much more on the 

 stretch. Thus a Leicestershire hunter is required not 

 only to gallop, but to gallop on. Let me take an 

 instance. Suppose we have a fair scenting day and a 

 good fox in a provincial country, and hounds run for 

 half-an-hour. We have a start and are with the pack, 

 but the little checks and pauses will come often and, 

 although the huntsman may never need to cast his 

 hounds from start to finish, we shall have many a 

 chance to pull back into a canter, or even a trot, or to 

 slip through a gate without losing our place and thus 

 in a multitude of ways to save the horse while we have 

 been with hounds all the time. But now, let us 

 suppose that we have started with the pack from 

 Barkby Holt, or Kibworth Sticks or Sheepthorns. In 

 each case the line will probably be over a perfectly 

 rideable country. There is a scent ; fox and hounds 

 race away. Well, the chances are that for twenty 

 minutes we shall scarcely have a chance even to take 

 a pull, for we must ride straight or we shall lose hounds 

 altogether. Hounds can beat horses, and thus the 

 pack often has so long a start that all the hovers 

 and momentary checks and casts are no advantage to 

 the horse, save to enable us to stay with hounds. 

 There is no chance to have a pull, for the horse is 

 galloping and jumping all the time. This is what 

 finds out the useful provincial hunter, " a very good 

 horse at the pace he can go," and I am sure that 

 an experience of my own will be confirmed by that of 

 many others. With two horses that had done well 

 in a by no means easy country, I came to Leicester- 



