242 In Scarlet and Silk 



hedge where he liad refused. lie jumped it 

 immediately. We had a splendid gallop 

 across the Vale, and he never ofi'ered to turn 

 his head from wood or water all the day ; in 

 fact, he "jumped as if he loved jumping," 

 as the dealers say. Riding back with my 

 excellent host, and chatting over the run 

 (is it not t}it most delightful chat in the 

 world?), he casually remarked, "1 meant to 

 tell you that whenever your horse gets a 

 stranger on his back, he makes a point of 

 refusing the first fence, and trying to bolt 

 home. If he doesn't succeed, lie never tries it 

 again that day. Last week my cousin rode 

 him, and he refused the first fence, and then 

 took himself off to his stable again." 



It was merely an idiosyncrasy, such as 

 many of our best horses, both racers and 

 hunters, possess, and it is, for the most part, 

 the men who don't, or won't, understand these 

 peculiarities that make perfectly harmless 

 horses into ferocious savages. One race- 

 horse likes his own particular cat always 

 with him. Blair Athol was never at rest 



