HIRELINGS.
The large majority of hunting women ride their own animals, or mounts lent them by friends; but some less fortunate ones have to content themselves with hirelings, many of which are unreliable conveyances, because they pass through so many hands, that they run a great risk of being spoiled by bad riders, and in that respect, horses have unfortunately very retentive memories. From two to three guineas is the usual charge for a day; and from £12 to £20 for a month. In both cases, the job-master has to bear all reasonable risks. A person who hires a horse for longer than a day, has to keep the animal and pay for his shoeing. £15 a month is a reasonable charge for the loan of a good hunter. When wishing to hire by the month, it is well to go to a job-master who has a large collection of hirelings, like Mr. Sam Hames of Leicester, so that the hirer may get a change of mounts, in the event of the first not being suitable.
I have ridden a few hirelings, but hunting on them gave me no pleasure; because I was entirely ignorant of their capabilities, and it is not a pleasant feeling to ride at a nasty fence with a big note of interrogation sticking in one’s heart. “Scrutator” in his interesting book, Foxhunting, says he “never could find any pleasure in riding strange horses. They neither understand your way of doing business, nor you theirs, so there must of necessity be doubts and drawbacks until both become more intimately acquainted.” I have seen so many bad accidents happen to men who were riding hired hunters, that I cannot too strongly impress on my readers the necessity of letting caution mark the guarded way, by testing a strange mount at small fences to see how he shapes, before taking unwise risks. Last season, a young man who was hunting with the Pytchley on a hireling came a cropper at the first fence, staked his mount and got a kick in the head. He was greatly distressed about the poor horse which the dealer had assured him could “jump anything,” a feat that no hunter in the world can perform. An accident of this kind with a hired hunter is a most unpleasant occurrence; because, if the bruised and mud-stained horseman happens to be a stranger to the dealer, the latter will naturally blame his riding, while the injured one who has to break the news as gently as possible, will consider that he has been misled concerning the animal’s jumping capabilities. Jorrocks’s advice, “know your horse,” should be engraved in capital letters on the heart of everyone who hunts, as its observance would prevent many distressing accidents both to humans and equines.