HORSE FOR GRASS COUNTRIES 255 



them with a sight of their friends and they sober 

 down. Whether it is pleasure at the sight of a 

 pack of hounds, or whether it is prudence arising from 

 the suggestion to the horse's brain of hard work to 

 come, I cannot say. " Too much foresight for a 

 horse " it may be objected to the latter. Well, we 

 know he has a wonderful memory ; so why should 

 he not be able to look forward a little ? Horses do 

 know when it is a hunting morning. At all events one 

 horse I have in my mind did so. Violent enough at 

 other times, he was perfectly quiet when he saw hounds. 

 In any case, whatever the cause that makes a horse 

 pull, it is necessary to be able to control him, and I 

 know nothing better after all in ordinary cases than a 

 long-cheeked curb with the lower rein passed through 

 the rings of a running martingale, a gag where it is 

 required, and one of Mr. Stokes's bits (made by Clarke 

 and Son of Market Harborough) for more difficult 

 cases. In all these instances we can regulate the 

 pressure according to the necessity. But I am not 

 going to discuss the problem of the pulling horse, 

 except to say that if you can master him, well and 

 good ; if you cannot, Leicestershire is no place for a re- 

 solute, self-willed, pig-headed puller. Multum in Parvo, 

 on one of his going days, would have killed some one 

 to a certainty and very likely broken his own neck. 



We have seen too that a horse must be, or at least 

 should be, fairly sensible and intelligent, which a certain 

 class of puller seldom is. A horse may catch hold 

 because he is keen, or excitable, or sometimes because 

 his teeth or mouth hurt him, or because he is un- 

 suitably bitted ; but a pig-headed puller is intolerable, 

 and so is a stupid horse. I have known a horse that 

 was really an idiot and could not take care of himself. 

 He might rise at a fence, or he might not. On the 



