RIDING TO FOX-HOUNDS 



We have hitherto supposed that you are riding 

 a good horse, in a good place, and have been so 

 fortunate as to meet with none of those reverses 

 that are nevertheless to be expected on occasion, 

 particularly when hounds run hard and the ground 

 is deep. The best of hunters may fall, the boldest 

 of riders be defeated by an impracticable fence. 

 Hills, bogs, a precipitous ravine, or even an 

 unlucky turn in a wood may place you at a mile's 

 disadvantage, almost before you have realised 

 your mistake, and you long for the wings of an 

 eagle, while cursing the impossibility of taking 

 back so much as a single minute from the past. 

 It seems so easy to ride a run when it is over ! 



But do not therefore despair. Pull yourself 

 well together, no less than your horse. Keep 

 steadily on at a regulated pace, watching the 

 movements of those who are with the hounds, 

 and ride inside them, every bend. No fox goes 

 perfectly straight — he must turn sooner or later — 

 and when the happy moment arrives be ready to 

 back your luck, and poitnce ! But here, again, I 

 would have your valour tempered with discretion. 

 If your horse does not see the hounds, be careful 

 how you ride him at such large places as he would 

 face freely enough in the excitement of their 

 company. Not one hunter in fifty is really fond 

 of jumping, and we hardly give them sufficient 

 credit for the good - humour with which they 



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