he lent him thus bridled to a friend.
I have seen horses go very pleasantly in what
I believe is called the half -moon bit, of which the
bridoon, having no joint, is shaped so as to take
the curve of the animal's mouth. I have never
tried one, but the idea seems good, as based on
the principle of comfort to the horse. When we
can arrive at that essential, combined with power
to the rider, we may congratulate ourselves on
possessing the right bridle at last, and need have
no scruple in putting the animal to its best pace,
confident we can stop it at will.
We should never forget that the faster hounds
run, the more desirable is it to have perfect
64 BIDING RECOLLECTIONS
control of our conveyance ; and that a hunter of
very moderate speed, easy to turn, and quick on
its legs, will cross a country with more expedition
than a race-horse that requires half a field to
" go about; " and that we dare not extend lest,
"with too much way on," he should get com-
pletely out of our hand. Once past the gap you
fancied, you will never find a place in the fence
you like so well again.
CHAPTEE IV
" You may ride us,
With one soft kiss, a thousand furlongs, ere
With spurs we heat an acre,"
SAYS Hermione, and indeed that gentle lady's
illustration equally applies to an inferior order
of beings, from which also man derives much
comfort and delight. It will admit of discussion
whether the "armed heel," with all its terrors,
has not, on the race-course at least, lost more
triumphs than it has won.
I have been told that Fordham, who seems
to be first past the judges' chair oftener than
any jockey of the day, wholly repudiates " the
tormentors," arguing that they only make a horse
shorten his stride, and " shut up," to use an
expressive term, instead of struggling gallantly
home. Judging by analogy, it is easy to
conceive that such may be the case. The
5 65
66 HIDING RECOLLECTIONS
tendency of the human frame seems certainly
to contract rather than expand its muscles, with
instinctive repugnance at the stab of a sharp
instrument, or even the puncture of a thorn.
It is not while receiving punishment but ad-
ministering it that the prize-fighter opens his
shoulders and lets out. There is no doubt that
many horses, thoroughbred ones especially, will
stop suddenly, even in their gallop, and resent
by kicking an indiscreet application of the spurs.
A determined rider who keeps them screwed in
the animal's flanks eventually gains the victory.
But such triumphs of severity and main force
are the last resource of an authority that ought
never to be disputed, as springing less from fear
than confidence and good- will.
It cannot be denied that there are many fools
in the world, yet, regarding matters of opinion,
the majority are generally right. A top-boot
has an unfinished look without its appendage
of shining steel ; and, although some sportsmen
assure us they dispense with rowels, it is rare to
find one so indifferent to appearances as not to
wear spurs. There must be some good reason
for this general adoption of an instrument that,
from the days of chivalry, has been the very
stamp and badge of a superiority which the man
on horseback assumes over the man on foot.
Let us weigh the arguments for and against this
emblem of knighthood before we decide. In
THE ABUSE OF THE SPUR 67
the riding-school, and particularly for military
purposes, when the dragoon's right hand is
required for his weapon, these aids, as they are
called, seem to enhance that pressure of the leg
which acts on the horse's quarters, as the rein
on his forehand, bringing his whole body into
the required position. Perhaps if the boot were
totally unarmed much time might be lost in
making his pupil understand the horseman's
wishes, but any one who has ridden a perfectly
trained charger knows how much more accu-
rately it answers to the leg than the heel, and
how awkwardly a horse acquits himself that has
been broke in very sharp spurs ; every touch
causing it to wince and swerve too far in the
required direction, glancing off at a tangent,
like a boat that is over ready in answering her
helm. Patience and a light switch, I believe,
would fulfil all the purposes of the spur, even in
the man&ge ; but delay is doubtless a drawback,
and there are reasons for going the shortest way
on occasion, even if it be not the smoothest and
the best.
It is quite unnecessary, however, and even
prejudicial, to have the rowels long and sharp.
Nothing impedes tuition like fear; and fear in
the animal creation is the offspring of pain.
Granted, then, that the spur may be applied
advantageously in the school, let us see how far
it is useful on the road or in the hunting-field.
68 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS
We will start by supposing that you do not
possess a really perfect hack; that desirable
animal must, doubtless, exist somewhere, but,
like Pegasus, is more often talked of than seen.
Nevertheless, the roadster that carries you to
business or pleasure is a sound, active, useful
beast, with safe, quick action, good shoulders,
of course, and a willing disposition, particularly
when turned towards home. How often in a
week do you touch it with the spurs? Once,
perhaps, by some bridle-gate, craftily hung at
precisely the angle which prevents your reaching
its latch or hasp. And what is the result of
this little display of vexation ? Your hack gets
flurried, sticks his nose in the air, refuses to
back, and compels you at last to open the gate
with your wrong hand, rubbing your knee against
the post as he pushes through in unseemly haste,
for fear of another prod. When late for dinner,
or hurrying home to outstrip the coming shower,
you may fondly imagine that but for "the
persuaders " you would have been drenched to
the skin ; and, relating your adventures at the
fire-side, will probably declare that "you stuck
the spurs into him the last mile, and came along
as hard as he could drive." But, if you were to
visit him in the stable, you would probably find
his flanks untouched, and would, I am sure, be
pleased rather than disappointed at the dis-
covery. Happily, not one man in ten knows
THE ABUSE OF THE SPUR 69
how to spur a horse, and the tenth is often the
most unwilling to administer so severe a punish-
ment.
Ladies, however, are not so merciful. Perhaps
because they have but one, they use this stimu-
lant liberally, and without compunction. From
their seat, and shortness of stirrup, every kick
tells home. Concealed under a riding-habit,
these vigorous applications are unsuspected by
lookers-on ; and the unwary wonder why, in the
streets of London or the Park, a ladies' horse
always appears to go in a lighter and livelier
form than that of her male companion. "It's
a woman's hand," says the admiring pedestrian.
" Not a bit of it," answers the cynic who knows;
"it's a woman's heel."
But however sparing you may be of the spurs
in lane or bridle-road, you are tempted to ply
them far too freely in the anxiety and excitement
of the hunting-field. Have you ever noticed the
appearance of a white horse at the conclusion
of some merry gallop over a strongly fenced
country ? The pure conspicuous colour tells sad
tales, and the smooth thin-skinned flanks are
too often stained and plastered with red. Many
bad horsemen spur their horses without meaning
it; many worse, mean to spur their horses at
every fence, and do.
A Leicestershire notability, of the last genera-
tion, once dubbed a rival with the expressive
70 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS
title of "a hard funker;" and the term, so
happily applied, fully rendered what he meant.
Of all riders, " the hard funker" is the most
unmerciful to his beast; at every turn he uses
his spurs cruelly, not because he is hard, but
because he funks. Let us watch him crossing a
country, observing his style as a warning rather
than an example.
Hesitation and hurry are his principal faults,
practised with much impartiality, in alternate
extremes. Though half-way across a field, he
is still undecided where to get out. This vacil-
lation communicates itself in electric sympathy
to his horse, and both go wavering down to
their fence, without the slightest idea what they
mean to do when they arrive. Some ten strides
off the rider makes up his mind, selecting,
probably, an extremely awkward place, for no
courage is so desperate as that which is founded
on fear. Want of determination is now supple-
mented by excessive haste and with incessant
application of the spurs, his poor horse is hurried
wildly at the leap. That it gets over without
falling, as happens oftener than might be sup-
posed, seems due to activity in the animal rather
than sagacity in the rider, and a strong instinct
of self-preservation in both ; but such a process,
repeated again and again during a gallop, even
of twenty minutes, tells fearfully on wind and
muscle, nor have many hunters sufficient powers
THE ABUSE OF THE SPUE 71
of endurance to carry these exacting performers
through a run.
Still the " h. f." would be nothing without his
spurs, and I grant that to him these instruments
are indispensable, if he is to get from one field
to another; but of what use are they to such
men as Mr. Gilmour, Captain Coventry, Sir
Frederic Johnston, Captain Boyce, Mr. Hugh
Lowther, and a host more that I could name,
who seem to glide over Leicestershire, and other
strongly-fenced countries, as a bird glides through
the air. Day after day, unless accidentally scored
in a fall, you may look in vain for a spur-mark
on their horses' sides. Shoulders and quarters,
indeed, are reddened by gashes from a hundred
thorns ; but the virgin spot, a handsbreadth
behind the girths, is pure and stainless still.
Yet not one of the gentlemen I have named will
ride without the instrument he uses so rarely,
if at all ; and they must cherish, therefore, some
belief in its virtue, when called into play, strong
enough to counterbalance its indisputable disad-
vantages notably, the stabbing of a hunter's
side, when its rider's foot is turned outwards
by a stake or grower, and the tearing of its back
or quarters in the struggle and confusion of a
fall. There is one excellent reason that, perhaps,
I may have overlooked. It is tiresome to answer
the same question over and over again, and in a
field of 200 sportsmen you are sure to be asked
72 BIDING RECOLLECTIONS
almost as many times, "Why don't you wear
spurs?" if you set appearances at defiance by
coming into the hunting-field without them.
In my personal recollection I can only call to
mind one man who systematically abjured so
essential a finish to the horseman's dress and
equipment. This was Mr. Tomline of Leigh
Lodge, a Leicestershire farmer and horse-dealer,
well-known some thirty years ago as one of the
finest riders and straightest goers that ever got
into a saddle. His costume, indeed, was not of
so careful a nature that want of completeness in
any one particular could spoil the general effect.
He always hunted in a rusty, worn pilot- jacket,
drab breeches with strings untied, brown-topped
boots, and a large ill-fitting hat, carrying in his
hand a ground-ash plant, totally useless for
opening a gate if he did not happen to jump it.
Yet thus accoutred, and generally on a young
one, so long as his horse's condition lasted, he
was sure to be in front, and, when the fences
were rougher than common, with but two or
three companions at most.
I have not yet forgotten the style in which I
once saw him coax a four-year-old to jump a
"bottom" under Launde, fortified by a high
post and rail down-hill a bad take off and
almost a ravine on the far side ! With his
powerful grip and exquisite handling, he seemed
to persuade the pupil that it was as willing as
the master.
THE ABUSE OF THE SPUR 73
My own spurs were four inches long, and
I was riding the best hunter in my stable, but I
don't think I would have had the same place
for fifty pounds !
A paradox, like an Irishman's bull, will some-
times convey our meaning more impressively
than a logical statement. It seems paradoxical,
yet I believe it is sound sense to say that no man
should arm his heels with spurs unless he is so
good a rider as to be sure they shall not touch
his horse. To punish him with them involun-
tarily is, of course, like any other blunder totally
inadmissible, but when applied with intention,
they should be used sparingly and only as a last
resource. That there are occasions on which
they rouse a horse's energies for a momentary
effort, I am disposed to admit less from my own
experience than the opinion of those for whose
practical knowledge in all such matters I have
the greatest respect. Both the Messrs. Coventry,
in common with other first-rate steeple-chase
riders, advocate their use on rare occasions and
under peculiar circumstances. Poor Jem Mason
never went hunting without them, and would
not, I think, have hesitated to apply them pretty
freely if required, but then these could all spur
their horses in the right place, leaning back the
while and altering in no way the force and bearing
of hand or seat. Most men, on the contrary,
stoop forward and let their horses' heads go when
74 BIDING RECOLLECTIONS
engaged in this method of compulsion, and even
if their heels do reach the mark, by no means a
certainty, gain but little with the rowels com-
pared to all they lose with the reins.
There is no fault in a hunter so annoying to a
man whose heart is in the sport as a tendency to
refuse. It utterly defeats the timid and damps
the courage of the bold, while even to him who
rides that he may hunt rather than hunts that he
may ride, it is intensely provoking, as he is apt
to lose by it that start which is so invaluable in
a quick thing, and, when a large field are all
struggling for the same object, so difficult to
regain. This perversity of disposition too, is
very apt to be displayed at some fence that
will not admit of half-measures, such as a rail
low enough to jump, but too strong to break, or
a ditch so wide and deep that it must not be
attempted as a standing leap. In these cases a
vigorous dig with the spurs at the last moment
will sometimes have an excellent effect. But it
must not be trusted as an unfailing remedy.
Nearly as many hunters will resent so broad a
hint, by stopping short, and turning restive, as
will spring generously forward, and make a
sudden effort in answer to the appeal. For this,
as for every other requirement of equitation,
much depends on an insight into his character,
whom an enthusiastic friend of mine designates
" the bolder and wiser animal of the two."
THE ABUSE OF THE SPUE 75
Few men go out hunting with the expectation
of encountering more than one or two falls in
the best of runs, although the score sometimes
increases very rapidly, when a good and gallant
horse is getting tired towards the finish. Twenty
croppers in a season, if he is well-mounted, seems
a high average for the most determined of
bruisers, but a man, whom circumstances impel
to ride whatever he can lay hands on, must take
into consideration how he can best rise from the
ground unhurt with no less forethought than he
asks his way to the meet or inquires into the
condition of his mount. To such a bold rider
the spur may seem an indispensable article, but
he must remember that even if its application
should save him on occasion, which I am not
altogether prepared to admit, the appendage
itself is most inconvenient when down. I cannot
remember a single instance of a man's foot re-
maining fixed in the stirrup who was riding
without spurs. I do not mean to say such a
catastrophe is impossible, but I have good
reason to know that the buckle on the instep,
which when brightly polished imparts such a
finish to the lustrous wrinkles of a well-made
boot, is extremely apt to catch in the angle of
the stirrup iron, and hold us fast at the very
moment when it is most important to our safety
we should be free.
I have headed this chapter " The Abuse of the
76 BIDING BECOLLECTIONS
Spur," because I hold that implement of horse-
manship to be in general most unmercifully
abused, so much so that I believe it would be
far better for the majority of horses, and riders
too, if it had never come into vogue. The perfect
equestrian may be trusted indeed with rowels
sharp and long as those that jingle at the
Mexican's heels on his boundless prairies but,
as in the days of chivalry, these ornaments
should be won by prowess to be worn with
honour; and I firmly believe that nine out of
every ten men who come out hunting would be
better and more safely carried if they left their
spurs at home.
CHAPTER V
HAND
WHAT is it ? Intellect, nerve, sympathy, con-
fidence, skill ? None of these can be said to
constitute this quality; rather it is a combina-
tion of all, with something superinduced that
can only be called a magnetic affinity between
the aggressive spirit of man and the ductile
nature of the beast.
" He spurred the old horse, and he held him tight,
And he leaped him out over the wall,"
says Kingsley, in his stirring ballad of " The
Knight's Last Leap at Alten-ahr ; ' and
Kingsley, an excellent rider himself, thus de-
scribed exactly how the animal should have been
put at its formidable fence. Most poets would
have let their horse's head go the loose rein is
a favourite method of making play in literature
and a fatal refusal must have been the result.
The German Knight, however, whose past life
77
78 BIDING RECOLLECTIONS
seems to have been no less disreputable than his
end was tragic, had not
" Lived by the saddle for years a score,"
to fail in his horsemanship at the finish, and so,
when he came to jump his last fence negotiated
it with no less skill than daring grim, quiet,
resolute, strong of seat, and firm of hand. The
latter quality seems, however, much the rarer of
the two. For ten men who can stick to the
saddle like Centaurs you will hardly find one
gifted with that nicety of touch which horses so
willingly obey, and which, if not inborn, seems
as difficult to acquire by practice as the draughts-
man's eye for outline, or the musician's ear for
sound. Attention, reflection, painstaking, and
common sense, can, nevertheless, do much ; and,
if the brain will only take the trouble to think,
the clumsiest fingers that ever mismanaged a
bridle may be taught in time to humour it like
a silken thread.
I have been told, though I never tried the
experiment, that if you take bold chanticleer
from his perch, and, placing his bill on a table,
draw from it a line of chalk by candle-light, the
poor dazed fowl makes no attempt to stir from
this imaginary bondage, persuaded that it is
secured by a cord it has not strength enough
to break. We should never get on horseback
without remembering this unaccountable illusion ;
HAND 79
our control by means of the bridle is, in reality,
little more substantial than the chalk-line that
seems to keep the bird in durance. It should be
our first consideration so to manage the rein we
handle as never to give our horse the opportunity
of discovering our weakness and his own strength.
How is this to be effected ? By letting his
head go, and allowing him to carry us where he
will ? Certainly not, or we should have no need
for the bridle at all. By pulling at him, then,
with main strength, and trying the muscular
power of our arms against that of his shoulders
and neck? Comparing these relative forces again,
we are constrained to answer, Certainly not ; the
art of control is essentially founded on compro-
mise. In riding, as in diplomacy, we must
always be ready to give an inch that we may
take an ell. The first principle of horsemanship
is to make the animal believe we can rule its
wildest mood ; the next, to prevent, at any
sacrifice, the submission of this plausible theory
to proof. You get on a horse you have never
seen before, improperly bitted, we may fairly
suppose, for few men would think of wasting as
many seconds on their bridle as they devote
minutes to their boots and breeches. You infer,
from his wild eye and restless ear, that he is " a
bit of. a romp;" and you observe, with some
concern, that surrounding circumstances, a race,
a review, a coursing meeting, or a sure find, it
80 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS
matters little which, are likely to rouse all the
tumultuous propensities of his nature. Obviously
it would be exceedingly bad policy to have the
slightest misunderstanding. The stone of
Sisyphus gathered impetus less rapidly than
does a horse who is getting the better of his
rider ; and John Gilpin was not the first eques-
trian, by a good many, for whom
" The trot became a gallop soon,
In spite of curb and rein."
" I am the owner, I wish I could say the
master, of the four best hunters I ever had in
my life," wrote one of the finest horsemen in
Europe to a brother proficient in the art ; and
although so frank an avowal would have seemed
less surprising from an inferior performer, his
friend, who was also in the habit of riding any-
thing, anywhere, and over everything, doubtless
understood perfectly what he meant.
Now in equitation there can be no divided
empire ; and the horse will most assuredly be
master if the man is not. In the interests of
good government, then, beware how you let your
authority literally slip through your fingers, for,
once lost, it will not easily be regained.
Draw your reins gently to an equal length, and
ascertain the precise bearing on your horse's
mouth that seems, while he is yet in a walk, to
influence his action without offending his sensi-
HAND 81
tiveness. But this cannot be accomplished with
the hands alone ; these members, though
supposed to be the prime agents of control,
will do little without the assistance of legs and
knees pressing the sides and flanks of the animal,
so as to urge him against the touch of his bit,
from which he will probably show a tendency to
recoil, and, as it is roughly called, "forcing him
into his bridle."
The absence of this leg-power is an incalculable
disadvantage to ladies, and affords the strongest
reason, amongst many, why they should be
mounted only on temperate and perfectly broken
horses. How much oftener would they come to
grief but that their seat compels them to ride
with such long reins as insure light hands, and
that their finer sympathy seems fully understood
and gratefully appreciated by the most sympa-
thetic of all the brute creation !
The style adopted by good horsewomen,
especially in crossing a country, has in it much
to be admired, something, also, to be deprecated
and deplored. They allow their horses plenty of
liberty, and certainly interfere but little with
their heads, even at the greatest emergencies ;
but their ideas of pace are unreasonably liberal,
and they are too apt to " chance it " at the
fences, encouraging with voice and whip the
haste that in the last few strides it is judicious
to repress. It seems to me they are safer in a
6
82 BIDING RECOLLECTIONS
bank-and-ditch country than amongst the high
strong fences of the grazing districts, where a
horse must be roused and held together that he
may jump well up in the air, and extend himself
afterwards, so as to cover the wide uncertainties
he may find on the landing side. For a bank he
is pretty sure to collect himself without troubling
his rider ; and this is, perhaps, why Irishmen, as
a general rule, use such light bridles.
Now a woman cannot possibly bring her horse
up to a high staked-and-bound fence, out of deep
ground, with the strength and resolution of a
man, whose very grip in the saddle seems to
extort from the animal its utmost energies.
Half measures are fatal in a difficulty, and, as
she seems unable to interfere with good effect
she is wise to let it alone.
We may learn from her, however, one of the
most effective secrets of the whole art, and that
is, to ride with long reins. " Always give them
plenty of rope," said poor Jem Mason, when
instructing a beginner; and he certainly practised
what he preached. I have seen his hands carried
so high as to be level with his elbows, but his
horse's head was always in the right place ; and to
this must be attributed the fact that, while he rode
to hounds straighter than anybody else, he got
comparatively few falls. A man with long reins
not only affords his horse greater liberty at his
fences, but allows him every chance of recovery
HAND 83
should he get into difficulties on landing, the
rider not being pulled with a jerk on the animal's