FIELD TRAINING 69 



remember regarding the horse. It may be trans- 

 posed into " give him plenty of rope/' i. e. ride 

 with long reins. Be assured that, with your elbows 

 well back, and close to your side, and your hands 

 as far back as (and if separated, on each side 

 of) the pommel of the saddle, you have much 

 more command over your horse than if your arms 

 were nearly straight out and your hands half-way 

 up his neck. It is like the difference between 

 steering a big ship with a wheel and with a tiller. 

 Besides, think of the look of it {vide the pictures 

 on p. 17), and, above all, in the first case the horse 

 will go comfortably to himself, and therefore to you, 

 while in the second even a phlegmatic, and what 

 Mr. Jorrocks would call " unhenterpriseless brute," 

 will resent the restraint, and consequently make you 

 uncomfortable. 



There are, it seems, a few horses which, either 

 from bad education, wrong treatment, or from some- 

 thing wrong with their brains, appear to go mad 

 almost directly they begin to gallop with other 

 horses near them, and nothing satisfies them but 

 going as hard as they can split. Such are luckily 

 few and far between, and the shortcomings of man 

 are responsible for most of them. It is no pleasure 

 to ride such brutes, and they will not get you to 

 hounds nearly so well as slower, though more 

 handy, horses, simply because you cannot let them 

 go unless there is plenty of room to stop them in, 

 and with constantly pulling against you they beat 



