r must
have imagined that his horse was a wonderful jumper to have sent him at
such a forbidding thing, especially as it had been avoided by the first
flight people, and what they can't jump, strangers may be perfectly
certain ought to be left alone. In this case, the animal, which may have
been easily able to take the jump, went at it unwillingly, for he saw it
was not the line taken by other horses, and he was doubtless annoyed at
being asked to incur what must have appeared to him an unnecessary risk.
A similar thing occurred when a well-known Leicestershire lady broke her
collar-bone. Horses were filing through the gate, and the lady, who was
anxious to get forward, put her horse at a stiff posts and rails by the
side of it. He apparently regarded the act as unnecessary, for he went
at it in a half-hearted fashion, struck the fence, fell, and hurt his
rider. It is the custom to say that the first flight people who ride
safely over Leicestershire are mounted on the best horses that money can
buy; but at the same time, we should remember that they seldom deceive
their mounts by asking them to jump anything which is either impossible
or unnecessary. Mr. Hedworth Barclay, who is one of the finest horsemen
in Leicestershire, always rides with great judgment. If he did not, he
would not have been safely carried for fourteen seasons by his brilliant
hunter Freeman, and for an almost equally long time by Lord Arthur and
Franciscan.

A great deal of ignorant nonsense has been written about people (and
even horses!) taking "their own line," but such scribes ought to go to
Leicestershire and show how that can be done! Ladies who try to follow
the teaching of such people, do so at great personal risk; for it is
absurd for a stranger, however well she may ride or be mounted, to think
that she can safely take her own line over an unknown country, and
especially such a one as Leicestershire, which is in many parts entirely
unjumpable. As it requires several seasons to learn the "lie of the
land," most people wisely prefer to hunt in a county they know. Some
ladies make a great boast of their numerous falls. One recently told me
that she had had fourteen croppers in a hunting season; but when I hear
such talk, I cannot help thinking that there is something radically
wrong with their riding, for our best horsewomen very seldom fall.

I have noticed that horses have been staked in hunting, through being
taken sideways instead of str