RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 



man and beast, but while sufficiently perilous for 

 glory, seems to my mind rather too stiff for 

 pleasure ! 



And yet I have seen half a dozen good men 

 well mounted live with hounds over this country 

 for two or three miles on end without a fall, nor 

 do I believe that in these stiffly-fenced grazing 

 grounds the average of dirty coats is greater than 

 in less difficult-looking districts. It may be that 

 those who compete are on the best of hunters, 

 and that a horse finds all his energies roused by 

 the formidable nature of such obstacles, if he 

 means to face them at all ! 



And now a word about those casualties which 

 perhaps rather enhance than damp our ardour in 

 the chase. 



Mr. Assheton Smith used to say that no man 

 could be called a good rider who did not know 

 how to fall. Founded on his own exhaustive 

 experience, there is much sound wisdom in this 

 remark. The oftener a man is down, the less 

 likely is he to be hurt, and although, as the old 

 joke tells us, absence of body as regards danger 

 seems even preferable to presence of mind, the 

 latter quality is not without its advantage in the 

 crisis that can no longer be deferred. 



I have seen men so flurried when their horses' 

 noses touched the ground as to fling themselves 

 wildly from the saddle, and meet their own 



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