10 RACECOURSE AND COVERT SIDE. 



awkward with me one day when I interfered with 

 him. Doesn't Hke to be baulked, you know." 



"Yes; I see," I answered, unavoidably con- 

 trasting the eulogies of the night before with 

 the somewhat dubious commendation now being 

 passed on the animal. " Does he pull ? " 



" Not in the least — wonderfully light mouth ; 

 that's why I said be careful not to check him," 

 was the response. 



A wonderfully light-mouthed horse that is 

 not to be checked, and is to be held together, 

 and has a disposition to turn awkward, cannot 

 be regarded as a model animal. It is difficult 

 to hit on the precise medium, especially if the 

 creature does not chance to be in its best temper 

 at the time. A horse that jumps bold, again, 

 is not the most welcome to a modest rider ; and 

 what with the "reaching round a bit " — which, 

 if it means anything, means kicking — while 

 being mounted, and the bucking a little when 

 the rider is in the saddle, I begin thinking of 

 other quiet horses from Selwood, and trying to 

 remember whether it was three ribs or merely 

 a collar-bone that I heard of another specimen 

 of them breaking for his rider. 



" You'll like him very much when you've 

 got used to him, I'm sure," Mrs. Greenwood 

 cheerily added ; but I was not so sure by any 



