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BREAKING FENCES AND BREAKING SCULLS.

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that, as a fighter, if he was 13st., he would be a still greater nonpareil. In fact I should say, no man living that we know of could then be a match for him. Thus I say of horses; take a good one of 15 hands, proportionably made, make him sixteen or even more, and let his proportions increase, like weight in a give-and-take plate, by the inch, and he would be better still. My predilection for largesized horses in no way must be considered as thinking they can carry more weight than lesser ones: quite the contrary; for if I rode 18st. I should choose low ones, upon the principle that a stick two feet long can bear more weight than one of four, unless the diameter of the longer was even more than proportionably increased. But there is a commanding feel in the sweep of a large-sized horse that gives me confidence in him; and though I do not want him, in accordance with Nimrod's principle, to break down fences by physical force, the ease with which he compasses them is quite delightful to one who wants nerve to put the strength of his horse in competition with that of stiff rails. I cannot help being a coward: my nag may jump as wide with me as the Thames if he likes, or as high as he pleases (provided he lands again in time for dinner); but pray let him jump, for really I do not understand making battering rams of my horse's knees, nor do I think he would hold them as having been made for that purpose more than the elephant thought his scull was intended as an anvil for his driver to crack cocoa nuts upon. He returned the compliment by trying the experiment on Mr. Driver's head, who, I believe, found the retaliation very hard, and his scull very soft; so, I apprehend, we should find our legs if we used them

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HUNTING SEATS AND RACING SEATS.

for the purpose that Nimrod seems to expect horses to use theirs. Depend on it they were made to carry them, but not to break timber with.

There are other advantages we derive from having made racing one of our pursuits. It gives a close firm seat; teaches us to hold our horse together; and, above all, nothing so much instructs in the feeling of when a horse is tiring: it teaches the necessity of taking a pull at him in proper time; in all of which things, as far as I can judge, our ancestors were very deficient. Pace has taught the absolute necessity of practising them. I have heard very old sportsmen say they hardly ever knew a man who was accustomed to riding over the flat ride well over a country. This shows that the hunting or racing men of those days were not mixed up with each other as they now are. But besides this, in those days racing riders, when standing in their stirrups, could only be compared to a man standing on his feet with a Newfoundland dog between his legs, thus leaving room for an ordinary pointer between the seat and the saddle. No man with such a seat could cross a country, and no jockey with such a one should ever have crossed a race-horse: but now our hunting men are not seen with the old loose swagging seat of former fox-hunters, nor are jocks seen with their knees up to their chins when sitting down on their saddle, except old Tommy Lye; but then he rides so well that it is fair to let him ride as he likes. In one way I would never wish to see a man ride like him; in another, I must pay him the just compliment of saying very few can. Now all these hints we may, and now do, take from racing, either by practice or observation. Though of course

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they cannot make a man specifically less than his actual standing weight, they are so advantageous to the horse, that whether we diminish that weight, or so husband his powers as to give him more ability to carry it, it amounts to the same thing. Without consideration, a man may say, If our forefathers did not possess these advantages, how did they get along? Why very well: so did the Old Blue from the Saracen's Head, Snow Hill, that, when I was a good boy fiveand-thirty years ago, took me to Bath in seventeen hours and a half. I have gone better though by The Age to Brighton since, and we go better in the field: at all events we go faster. The old short wheelers' reins did very well for six miles an hour; but we should get in a mess if we used them going sometimes fourteen over a hilly country. Racing pace calls for racing practices; and horses to go with hounds now must all but race with perhaps 14st. on them. Though I cannot in general advocate steeple-racing as it is carried on, I am quite free to allow it has at least one great item in its favour: it is the very best possible school for teaching a man to ride across country. I do not consider that it is in any way necessary for a man to be a steeple-chase rider to enable him to ride to hounds, if, as formerly, men hunted from a love of hunting. The time was when men rode in order to see hounds: they now see hounds in order to ride; and that being the case, racing knowledge and racing habits become indispensable. If greater exertions are now required from men and horses, means must be adopted to meet the exigencies of the case: and certainly since hunting was first followed, there never was a period that could produce such a number of fine riders in the field as the present. But I am

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quite clear this not a time for welter weights to shine, or even to hold their own, independent of Nimrod's ideas of heavy weights breaking their way through fences. I have certainly heard the remark, and have made it, that the greater proportion of our best sportsmen, best and most forward riders, were heavy men; but it certainly is not their weight that tells in their favour: that is, it is not their weight that gets them along; but I trust I can point out what does do it, namely, what gets Captain Peel along "head and resolution." He did not get either in the riding school; nor would he or any other man have ever learned to ride a four-mile steeple-race by practising between four walls. His head was given him before he saw the school, and I dare say the resolution too: if not, he has taken care to get a pretty good share of it somewhere else.

But in allusion to heavy men riding well: in the first place, if a man is heavy, unless he wes enthusiastic in the pursuit, he most probably would never have attempted to hunt at all; but if he does, aware of the impediment his weight must be, he knows he shall require every aid that can be got to make some amends for it. This induces him to make himself a first-rate horseman. He knows that a perfect knowledge of hounds and hunting is an incalculable advantage to a man riding with them; so he becomes. a sportsman and fox-hunter. He knows it will not do for him to be picking and choosing the safest places, or turning far out of his way to find them. If he gets behind, he is probably behind for the day, or certainly for the burst. Few horses lightly weighted can catch hounds with impunity: what could they then do with a heavy weight on them?

MOSTLY GOOD HORSEMEN.

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The consciousness of this makes heavy men ride straight, as every man should do as nearly as he can. I know heavy leaps take a good deal out of a horse; but heavy ground takes more, particularly if we are forced to increased speed over it in order to make up for going out of the way. The heavy man knows he cannot take liberties with his horse, but, on the contrary, must nurse him at every opportunity, and that he must not throw one chance away. The 10st. men are apt to think they may, and thus often find out their mistake; at least they find their horses beat. I will venture to say, let two horses be going together, the one with 14st. on him, the other with 9st., and supposing them both all but beat, let the heavy weight, as most probably he would, hold his horse well together, take care to put him on the firmest ground, and take him along a fair even pace, he will get him perhaps well through his difficulty. Let the light weight have his horse's head loose, clap the spurs to him, and not select his ground, he will stop him in two fields, or probably in a less distance. A horse sinking cannot bear increased exertion, however light the weight may be; no, not if he was turned loose.

As far as long observation serves me, I think I have stated the great secret of heavy men astonishing us, as many unquestionably have done, and now do, with hounds. Such men, riding precisely as they do, which is the system upon which feather weights should ride, would of course be able to ride still forwarder take 4st. away from them; for even doing as they do, I always hear them "curse their cumbrous weight" as heartily as horses have reason to do some light ones. If we wanted any proof of what judg

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