RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 



proving its value. With three or four, we know 

 their form to a pound ; with a dozen, season after 

 season goes by without furnishing occasion for 

 the use of all, till some fine scenting day, after 

 mounting a friend, we are surprised to learn that 

 the flower of the whole stud has hitherto been 

 esteemed but a moderate animal, only fit to carry 

 the sandwiches, and bring us home. 



I imagine, notwithstanding all we have heard 

 and read concerning the difficulty of buying Irish 

 horses in their own country, that there are still 

 scores of them in Cork, Limerick, and other 

 breeding districts, as yet unpromised and unsold. 

 The scarcity of weight-carriers is indisputable, but 

 can we find them here? The "light man's 

 horse," to fly under sixteen stone, is a "black 

 swan " everywhere, and if not " a light man's 

 horse," that is to say, free, flippant, fast, and well- 

 bred, he will never give his stalwart rider 

 thorough satisfaction ; but in Ireland, far more 

 plentifully than in England, are still to be found 

 handsome, clever, hunting-like animals fit to carry 

 thirteen stone, and capital jumpers at reasonable 

 prices, varying from one to two hundred pounds. 

 The latter sum, particularly if you had it with you 

 in sovereigns, would in most localities ensure the 

 "pick of the basket," and ten or twenty of the 

 coins thrown back for luck. 



I have heard it objected to Irish hunters, that 



152 



