the pressure may lie on the bars of the horse's
mouth and not crumple up the corners of his lips,
like a gag. The curb-chain will probably be too
tight, also the throat-lash ; if so, loosen both,
and with your own hands ; it is a pleasant way
of making acquaintance, and may perhaps pre-
possess him in your favour. If he wears a nose-
band it will be time enough to take it off when
you find he shows impatience of the restriction
by shaking his head, changing his leg frequently,
or reaching unjustifiably at the rein.

I am prejudiced against the nose-band. I
frankly admit a man in a minority of one must
be wrong, but I never rode a horse in my life
that, to my own feeling, did not go more com-
fortably when I took it off.

Look also to your girths. For a fractious
temper they are very irritating when drawn too
tight, while with good shape and a breast plate,
there is little danger of their not being tight
enough. When these preliminaries have been
carefully gone through mount nimbly to the
saddle, and take the first opportunity of feeling
your new friend's mouth and paces in trot,
canter, and gallop. Here, too, though in general



COERCION 29

it should be avoided for many reasons, social,
agricultural, and personal, a little "larking" is
not wholly inexcusable. It will promote cor-
diality between man and beast. The latter, as
we are considering him, is sure to be fond of
jumping, and to ride him over a fence or two
away from other horses in cold blood will create
in his mind the very desirable impression that
you are of a daring spirit, determined to be in
front.

Take him, however, up to his leap as slow as
he will permit if possible at a trot. Even
should he break into a canter and become im-
petuous at last, there is no space for a violent
rush in three strides, during which you must
hold him in a firm, equable grasp. As he leaves
the ground give him his head, he cannot have
" too much rope," till he lands again, when, as
soon as possible, you should pull him back to a
trot, handling him delicately, soothing him with
voice and gesture, treating the whole affair as
the simplest matter of course. Do not bring him
again over the same place, rather take him on
for two or three fields in a line parallel to the
hounds. By the time they are put into covert
you will have established a mutual understand-
ing, and found out how much you dislike
one another at the worst ! It is well now to
avoid the crowd, but beware of taking up a
position by yourself where you may head the



30 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS

fox ! No man can ride in good-humour under a
sense of guilt, and you must be good-humoured
with such a mount as you have under you to-
day.

Exhaust, therefore, all your knowledge of
woodcraft to get away on good terms with the
hounds. The wildest romps in a rush of horses
is often perfectly temperate and amenable when
called on to cut out the work. Should you, by
ill luck, find yourself behind others in the first
field, avoid, if possible, following any one of them
over the first fence. Even though it be some-
what black and forbidding, choose a fresh place,
so free a horse as yours \vill jump the more care-
fully that his attention is not distracted by a
leader, and there is the further consideration,
based on common humanity, that your leader
might fall when too late for you to stop. No
man is in so false a position as he who rides over
a friend in the hunting-field, except the friend !

Take your own line. If you be not afraid to
gallop and the hounds run on, yon will probably
find it plain sailing till they check. Should a
brook laugh in your face, of no unreasonable
dimensions, you may charge it with confidence,
a rash horse usually jumps width, and there will
be plenty of " room to ride " on the far side. It
takes but a few feet of water to decimate a field.
I may here observe that, if, as they cross, you
see the hounds leap at it, even though they fall



COERCION 31

short, you may be sure the distance from bank
to bank is within the compass of a hunter's
stride.

At timber, I would not have you quite so con-
fident. When, as in Leicestershire, it is set
fairly in line with the fence and there is a good
take-off, your horse, however impetuous, may
leap it with impunity in his stroke, but should the
ground be poached by cattle, or dip as you come
to it, beware of too great hurry. The feat ought
then to be accomplished calmly and collectedly
at a trot, the horse taking his time, so to speak,
from the motions of his rider, and jumping, as it
is called, " to his hand." Now when man and
horse are at variance on so important a matter
as pace, the one is almost sure to interfere at the
wrong moment, the other to take off too soon or
get too close under his leap ; in either case the
animal is more likely to rise at a fence than a
rail, and if unsuccessful in clearing it a binder is
less dangerous to flirt with than a bar. Lord
Wilton seems to me to ride at timber a turn
slower than usual, Lord Grey a turn faster.
Whether father and son differ in theory I am
unable to say, I can only affirm that both are
undeniable in practice. Mr. Fellowes of Shottis-
ham, perhaps the best of his day, and Mr.
Gilmour, facile princeps, almost walk up to this
kind of leap ; Colonel, now General Pearson,
known for so many seasons as " the flying



32 BIDING RECOLLECTIONS

Captain," charges it like a squadron of Sikh
cavalry ; Captain Arthur Smith pulls back to a
trot ; Lord Carington scarcely shortens the stride
of his gallop. Who shall decide between such
professors ? Much depends on circumstances,
more perhaps on horses. Assheton Smith used
to throw the reins on a hunter's neck when rising
at a gate, and say, " Take care of yourself, you
brute ! " whereas the celebrated Lord Jersey,
who gave me this information of his old friend's
style, held his own bridle in a vice at such
emergencies, and both usually got safe over !
Perhaps the logical deduction from these con-
flicting examples should be not to jump timber
at all.

But the rash horse is by this time getting
tired, and now, if you would avoid a casualty,
you must temper valour with discretion, and
ride him as skilfully as you can.

He has probably carried you well and plea-
santly during the few happy moments that
intervened between freshness and fatigue ; now
he is beginning to pull again, but in a more set
and determined manner than at first. He does
not collect himself so readily, and wants to go
faster than ever at his fences, if you would let
him. This careless, rushing style threatens a
downfall, and to counteract it will require the
exercise of your utmost skill. Carry his head
for him, since he seems to require it, and



COERCION 33

endeavour, by main force if necessary, to bring
him to his leaps with his hind legs under him.
Half-beaten horses measure distance with great
accuracy, and "lob" over very large places,
when properly ridden. If, notwithstanding all
your precautions, he persists in going on his
shoulders, blundering through his places, arid
labouring across ridge and furrow like a boat in
a heavy sea, take advantage of the first lane you
find, and voting the run nearly over, make up
your mind to view the rest of it in safety from
the hard road !

Eide the same horse again at the first
opportunity, and, if sound enough to come out
in his turn, a month's open weather will
probably make him a very pleasant mount.

The "slug," a thorough-bred one, we will
say, with capital hind-ribs, lop ears, and a lazy
eye, must be managed on a very different system
from the foregoing. You need not be so par-
ticular about his bridle, for the coercion in this
case is of impulsion rather than restraint, but I
would advise you to select a useful cutting- whip,
stiff and strong enough to push a gate. Not
that you must use it freely one or two "re-
minders " at the right moment, and an occasional
flourish, ought to carry you through the day.
Be sure, too, that you strike underhanded, and
not in front of your own body, lest you take his
eye off at the critical moment when your horse

3



34 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS

is measuring his leap. The best riders prefer
such an instrument to the spurs, as a stimulant
to increased pace and momentary exertion.

You will have little trouble with this kind of
hunter while hounds are drawing. He will seem
only too happy to stand still, and you may sit
amongst your friends in the middle ride, smoking,
joking, and holding forth to your heart's content.
But, like the fox, you will find your troubles
begin with the cheering holloa of " Gone away ! "

On your present mount, instead of avoiding
the crowd, I should advise you to keep in the
very midst of the torrent that, pent up in covert,
rushes down the main ride to choke a narrow
handgate and overflow the adjoining field.
Emerging from the jaws of their inconvenient
egress, they will scatter, like a row of beads
when the string breaks, and while the majority
incline to right or left, regardless of the line of
chase as compared with that of safety, some
half-dozen are sure to single themselves out,
and ride straight after the hounds.

Select one of these, a determined horseman,
whom you know to be mounted on an experienced
hunter ; give him 2^ en ty of room fifty yards at
least and ride his line, nothing doubting, fence
for fence, till your horse's blood is up, and your
own too. I cannot enough insist on a jealous
care of your leader's safety, and a little con-
sideration for his prejudices. The boldest sports-



COERCION 35

men are exceedingly touchy about being ridden
over, and not without reason. There is some-
thing unpleasantly suggestive in the bit, and
teeth, and tongue of an open mouth at your
ear; while your own horse, quivering high in
air, makes the discovery that he has not allowed
margin enough for the yawner under his nose !
It is little less inexcusable to pick a man's
pocket than to ride in it ; and no apology can
exonerate so flagrant an assault as to land on
him when down. Reflect, also, that a hunter,
after the effort to clear his fence, often loses
foothold, particularly over ridge and furrow, in
the second or third stride, and falls at the very
moment a follower would suppose he was safe
over. Therefore, do not begin for yourself till
your leader is twenty yards into the next field,
when you may harden your heart, set your
muscles, and give your horse to understand, by
seat and manner, that it must be in, through,
or over.

Beware, however, of hurrying him off his legs.
Bide him resolutely, indeed, but in a short,
contracted stride ; slower in proportion to the
unwillingness he betrays, so as to hold him in
a vice, and squeeze him up to the brink of his
task, when, forbidden to turn from it, he will
probably make his effort in self-defence, and
take you somehow to the other side. Not one
hunter in a hundred can jump in good form



36 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS

when going at speed ; it is the perfection of
equine prowess, resulting from great quickness
and the confidence of much experience. An
arrant refuser usually puts on the steam of his
own accord, like a confirmed rusher, and wheels
to right or left at the last moment, with an
activity that, displayed in a better cause, would
be beyond praise. The rider, too, has more
command of his horse, when forced up to the
bit in a slow canter than at any other pace.

Thoroughbred horses, until their education is
complete, are apt to get very close to their
fences, preferring, as it would seem, to go into
them OJL this side rather than the other. It is
not a style that inspires confidence ; yet these
crafty, careful creatures are safer than they
seem, and from jumping in a collected form,
with their hind legs under them, extricate them-
selves with surprising address from difficulties
that, after a little more tuition, they will never
be in. They are really less afraid of their fences,
and consequently less flurried, than the wilful,
impetuous brute that loses its equanimity from
the moment it catches sight of an obstacle and
miscalculating its distance, in sheer nervousness
most fatal error of all takes off too soon.

I will now suppose that in the wake of your
pilot you have negotiated two or three fences
with some expenditure of nerve and temper, but
without a refusal or a fall. The cutting- whip



COERCION 37

has been applied, and the result, perhaps, was
disappointing, for it is an uncertain remedy,
though, in my opinion, preferable to the spur.
Your horse has shown great leaping powers in
the distances he has covered without the mo-
mentum of speed, and has doubled an on-and-off
with a precision not excelled by your leader
himself. If he would but jump in his stride,
you feel you have a hunter under you. Should
the country be favourable, now is the time to
teach him this accomplishment, while his limbs
are supple and his spirit roused. If he seems
willing to face them, let him take his fences in
his own way ; do not force or hurry him, but
keep fast hold of his head without varying the
pressure of hand or limb by a hairsbreadth ; the
least uncertainty of finger or inequality of seat
will spoil it all. Should the ditch be towards
him, he will jump from a stand, or nearly so,
but, to your surprise, will land safe in the next
field. If it is on the far side, he will show more
confidence, and will perhaps swing over the
whole with something of an effort in his canter.
A foot or two of extra width may cause him to
drop a hind leg, or even bring him on his nose ;
so much the better ! no admonition of yours
would have proved as effectual a warning ; he
will take good care to cover distance enough
next time. Dispense with your leader now, if
you are pretty close to the hounds, for your



80007



38 RIDING BECOLLECTIONS

horse is gathering confidence with every stride.
He can gallop, of course, and is good through
dirt ; it is also understood that he is fit to go ;
there are not many in a season, but let us sup-
pose you have dropped into a run ; if he carries
you well to the finish, he will be a hunter from
to-day.

After some five-and-twenty minutes, you will
find him going with more dash and freedom, as
his neighbours begin to tire. You may now ride
him at timber without scruple, when not too
high, but avoid a rail that looks as if it would
break. To find out he may tamper with such
an obstacle is the most dangerous discovery a
hunter can make. You should send him at it
pretty quick, lest he get too near to rise, and
refuse at the last moment. He may not do it
in the best of form, but whether he chances it in
his gallop, or bucks over like a deer, or hoists
himself sideways all in a heap, with his tail
against your hat, at this kind of fence this kind
of horse is most unlikely to fall.

The same may be said of a brook. If he is
within a fair distance of the hounds, and you
see by the expression of his ears and crest that
he is watching them with ardent interest, ride
him boldly at water should it be necessary. It
is quite possible he may jump it in his stride
from bank to bank, without a moment's hesita-
tion. It is equally possible he may stop short



COERCION 39

on the bank, with lowered head and crouching
quarters as if prepared to drink, or dive, or
decline. He will do none of these. Sit still,
give him his head, keep close into your saddle,
not moving so much as an eyelash, and it is
more than probable that he will jump the stream
standing, and reach the other side, with a
scramble and a flounder at the worst !

If he should drop his hind-legs, shoot yourself
off over his shoulders in an instant, with a fast
hold of the bridle, at which tug hard, even
though you may not have regained your legs.
A very slight help now will enable him to ex-
tricate himself, but if he is allowed to subside
into the gulf, it may take a team of cart horses
to drag him out.

When in the saddle again give him a timely
pull ; after the struggle you will be delighted
with each other, and have every prospect of
going on triumphantly to the end.

I have here endeavoured to describe the
different methods of coercion by which two op-
posite natures may be induced to exert them-
selves on our behalf in the chase. Every horse
inclines, more or less, to one or other extreme I
have cited as an example. A perfect hunter has
preserved the good qualities of each without the
faults, but how many perfect hunters do any of
us ride in our lives ? The chestnut is as fast as
the wind, stout and honest, a safe and gallant



40 BIDING EECOLLECTIONS

fencer, but too light a mouth makes him difficult
to handle at blind and cramped places ; the bay
can leap like a deer, and climb like a goat, in-
vincible at doubles, and unrivalled at rails, but,
as bold Lord Cardigan said of an equally accom-
plished animal, "it takes him a long time to
get from one bit of timber to another ! " While
the brown, even faster than the chestnut, even
safer than the bay, would be the best, as he
is the pleasantest hunter in the world only
nothing will induce him to go near a brook !

It is only by exertion of a skill that is the
embodiment of thought in action, by application
of a science founded on reason, experience and
analogy, that we can approach perfection in our
noble four-footed friend. Common sense will
do much, kindness more, coercion very little,
yet we are not to forget that man is the master ;
that the hand, however light, must be strong,
the heel, however lively, must be resolute ; and
that when persuasion, best of all inducements,
seems to fail, we must not shrink from the
timety application of force.



CHAPTEK III

THE USE OF THE BRIDLE

THE late Mr. Maxse, celebrated some fifty years
ago for a fineness of hand that enabled him to
cross Leicestershire with fewer falls than any
other sportsman of fifteen stone who rode equally
straight, used to profess much comical impatience
with the insensibility of his servants to this
useful quality. He was once seen explaining
what he meant to his coachman with a silk-
handkerchief passed round a post.

" Pull at it ! " said the master. "Does it pull
at you ? "

" Yes, sir," answered the servant grinning.

" Slack it off then. Does it pull at you now?"

"No, sir."

"Well then, you double-distilled fool, can't
you see that your horses are like that post ? If
you don't pull at them they wont pull at you ! "

Now it seems to me that in riding and driving
also what we want to teach our horses is, that



42 BIDING RECOLLECTIONS

when we pull at them they are not to pull at us,
and this understanding is only to be attained by
a delicacy of touch, a harmony of intention, and
a give-and-take concord, that for lack of a better
we express by the term " hand." Like the
fingering of a pianoforte, this desirable quality
seems rather a gift than an acquirement, and its
rarity has no doubt given rise to the multiplicity
of inventions with which man's ingenuity en-
deavours to supply the want of manual skill.

It was the theory of a celebrated Yorkshire
sportsman, the well-known Mr. Fairfax, that
"every horse is a hunter if you don't throw
him down with the bridle ! " and I have always
understood his style of riding was in perfect
accordance with this daring profession of faith.
The instrument, however, though no doubt pro-
ducing ten falls, where it prevents one, is in so
far a necessary evil, that we are helpless without
it, and when skilfully used in conjunction with
legs, knees, and body by a consummate horseman,
would seem to convey the man's intentions to
the beast through some subtle agency, mysterious
and almost rapid as thought. It is impossible to
define the nature of that sympathy which exists
between a well-bitted horse and his rider, they
seem actuated by a common impulse, and it is
to promote or create this mutual understanding
that so many remarkable conceits, generally
painful, have been dignified with the name of



THE USE OF THE BEIDLE 43

bridles. In the saddle-room of any hunting-man
may be found at least a dozen of these, but you
will probably learn on inquiry, that three or four
at most are all he keeps in use. It must be a
stud of strangely-varying mouths and tempers
which, the snaffle, gag, Pelham, and double-
bridle are insufficient to humour and control.

As it seems from the oldest representations
known of men on horseback, to have been the
earliest in use, we will take the snaffle first.

This bit, the invention of common sense going
straight to its object, while lying easily on the
tongue and bars of a horse's mouth, and affording
control without pain, is perfection of its kind.
It causes no annoyance and consequently no
alarm to the unbroken colt, champing and
churning freely at the new plaything between
his jaws ; on it the highly trained charger bears
pleasantly and lightly, to "change his leg,"-
" passage "or "shoulder in," at the slightest
inflection of a rider's hand ; the hunter leans
against it for support in deep ground ; and the
race-horse allows it to hold him together at
nearly full-speed without contracting his stride,
or by fighting with the restriction wasting any
of his gallop in the air. It answers its purpose
admirably so long as it remains in the proper
place, but not a moment longer. Directly a
horse by sticking out his nose can shift this
pressure to his lips and teeth, it/ affords no more



44 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS

control than a halter. With head up, and mouth
open, he can go how and where he will. In such
a predicament only an experienced horseman has
the skill to give him such an amount of liberty
without license as cajoles him into dropping
again to his bridle, before he breaks away.
Once off at speed, with the conviction that he
is master, however ludicrous in appearance, the
affair is serious enough in fact.

Many centuries elapsed, and a good deal of
unpleasant riding must have been endured,
before the snaffle was supplemented with a
martingale. Judging from the Elgin Marbles,
this useful invention seems to have been wholly
unknown to the Greeks. Though the men's
figures are perfect in seat and attitude through
the whole of that spirited frieze which adorned
the Parthenon, not one of their horses carries
its head in the right place. The ancient Greek
seems to have relied on strength rather than
cunning, in his dealings with the noble animal,
and though he sat down on it like a workman,
must have found considerable difficulty in
guiding his beast the way he wanted to go.

But with a martingale, the most insubordinate
soon discover that they cannot rid themselves of
control. It keeps their heads down in a position
that enables the bit to act on the mouth, and if
they must needs pull obliges them to pull against
that most sensitive part called the bars. There



THE USE OF THE BRIDLE 45

is no escape bend their necks they must,
and to bend their necks means to acknow-
ledge a master and do homage to the rider's
will.

It is a well-known fact, and I can attest it by
my own experience, that a twisted snaffle with a
martingale will hold a runaway when every other
bridle fails ; but to guide or stop an animal
by the exercise of bodily strength is not
horsemanship, and to saw at its mouth for the
purpose cannot be expected to promote that
sympathy of desire and intention which we
understand by the term.

If we look at the sporting prints of our grand-
fathers and great-grandfathers, as delineated,
early in the present century, we observe that
nine out of every ten hunters were ridden in
plain snaffle bridles, and we ask ourselves if our
progenitors bred more docile beasts, or were
these drinkers of port wine, bolder, stronger, and
better horsemen than their descendants. With-
out entering on the vexed question of compara-
tive merit in hounds, hunters, pace, country and
sport, at an interval of more than two generations,
I think I can find a reason, and it seems to me
simply this.

Most of these hunting pictures are represen-
tations of the chase in our midland counties,
notably Leicestershire and Northamptonshire,
then only partially inclosed ; boundary fences



46 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS

of large properties were few and far between,
straggling also, and ill-made up, the high thorn
hedges that now call forth so much bold and so
much timid riding, either did not exist, or were
of such tender growth as required protection by
a low rail on each side, and a sportsman, with
flying coat-tails, doubling these obstacles neatly,
at his own pace, forms a favourite subject for the
artist of the time. Twenty or thirty horsemen,