RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 



by the "oxers" and doubles that form such 

 unwelcome exceptions to the usual run of impedi- 

 ments throughout the Shires. There is something 

 in the expression of their very ears while we put 

 them at their fences, that seems to say, "It's a 

 good trick enough, and would take in most horses, 

 but my mother taught me a thing or two in 

 Connemara, and you don't come over me ! " 

 Unfortunately the Shires, as they are called pa7' 

 excellence, the Vale of Aylesbury, a perfect 

 wilderness of grass, and indeed all the best 

 hunting districts, ride very deep nine seasons out 

 of ten, so that the Irish horse, accustomed to a 

 sound limestone soil and an unfurrow^ed surface 

 in his own green island, being moreover usually 

 much wanting in condition, feels the added 

 labour, and difference of action required, severely 

 enough. It is proverbial that a horse equal to 

 fourteen stone in Ireland is only up to thirteen 

 in Leicestershire, and English purchasers must 

 calculate accordingly. 



But if some prize-taker at the Dublin Horse 

 Show, or other ornament of that land which her 

 natives call the "first flower of the earth and first 

 gem of the sea," should disappoint you a little 

 when you ride him in November from Ranks- 

 borough, the Coplow, Crick, Melton - Spinney, 

 Christmas - Gorse, Great - Wood, or any other 

 favourite covert in one of our many good hunt- 



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