50 How I Became a Sportsman. 



regular gluttons at fencing, and yet afraid to 

 extend their horses even where it is all plain 

 sailing, let alone ridge and furrow, which, 

 without good shoulders in the horse and good 

 handling on the part of his rider, takes a little 

 doing. The best plan I think is to let your 

 horse alone as much as possible. Half the 

 horses are pulled into making mistakes, rely 

 upon that. Not only the hand but the finger is 

 necessary at times, so fine must be the touch 

 or feel between the rider's hands and the 

 horse's mouth. Horses won't make mistakes 

 if they can help it, and the surest way is to 

 leave them to themselves ; but then it requires 

 great nerve and confidence. As a proof that a 

 horse will take the greatest care of himself 

 when not bustled or pulled about, you have 

 only to watch a huntsman going, we will say, 

 across a piece of ridge and furrow, with very 

 short and high ridges, or perhaps across a piece 

 of a covert which has been cut down recently, 

 leaving the sharp ends of the hazel bushes 

 sticking; some nine inches or a foot above 

 ground. The huntsman's cares and anxieties 

 are with his hounds, and he is so intently 

 watching them, that he is not looking at all 



