CHAPTER VII 



VALOUR 



" T T E that would venture nothing must not 

 J- ^ get on horseback," says a Spanish 

 proverb, and the same caution seems applicable 

 to most manly amusements or pursuits. We 

 cannot enter a boat, put on a pair of skates, take 

 a gun in hand for covert shooting, or even run 

 downstairs in a hurry without encountering risk ; 

 but the amount of peril to which a horseman 

 subjects himself seems proportioned inversely to 

 the unconsciousness of it he displays. 



"Where there is no fear there is no danger," 

 though a somewhat reckless aphorism, is more 

 applicable, I think, to the exercise of riding than 

 to any other venture of neck and limbs. The 

 horse is an animal of exceedingly nervous 

 temperament, sympathetic too, in the highest 

 degree, with the hand from which he takes his 

 instructions. Its slightest vacillation affects him 

 with electric rapidity, but from its steadiness he 

 derives moral encouragement rather than physical 



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