Instead of doling out compensation to farmers as a form of charity, it would be much better for our hunting authorities to meet them on a level footing, get them to appoint a committee of their own, and pay that official body, every year, a certain proportion of the hunt subscriptions, to be applied according to the wishes of the Farmers’ Committee.
PILOTS.
I have not enlarged on the subject of hunting pilotage, because, truth to tell, I have never indulged in the luxury of a pilot, as I have preferred to know the capabilities of my mount and to see and act for myself. I believe that any woman who can ride and manage her horse with intelligent forethought, has no more need of a paid pilot than has the small boy who takes his chance on his pony. If a lady has no male companion to remain with her during the day’s hunting, she should provide herself with a groom, whose services will be very useful to her, in the event of anything going wrong, and in helping her in various ways. It would be absurd for her to expect casual aid at every turn, in a large field composed chiefly of strangers, especially when its giver would be deprived of his place in a run.
Pilots seem to be going out of fashion, if we may judge by the large number of women who hunt safely without their assistance. The inexperienced huntress generally has her father, brother, husband, or some male friend or servant to show her the way, which is the safest and best method of learning to hunt, because they would know both the capabilities of the young lady and her mount, and could be trusted to keep her out of harm’s way. If a paid pilot is engaged, his horse should not be a better fencer than that of his charge. He should also know her riding form, and over what kind of jumps she intends him to lead her.
I would strongly impress on an inexperienced lady the necessity of learning to judge pace, that is to say, to know at what speed her horse is going. The chief duty of a pilot is to set the pace for her, and to select such fences as he knows her horse is capable of jumping, the former being more important than the latter, as it is far more difficult to learn. She should see that her pilot is safely over a fence before sending her horse at it. Only practice and natural aptitude can teach a lady to judge pace: it cannot be learnt from any book.
A lady should not deceive her pilot, any more than we should withhold the truth from our doctor or lawyer. If she feels more in skirting trim than in hard hunting nerve, she should not hesitate to say so; for we all like to take things easy at times, whether it be in hunting or in anything else, according as we feel fit or otherwise. There is no gainsaying that the human barometer is regulated to a great extent by the weather, as we may see by the big fields which greet the Master on a fine hunting morning.
The unpleasant disclosures which have been recently made in our Law Courts, concerning the free and easy conduct of a certain set of hunting men and women, may prejudice many mothers against hunting as a fitting pastime for their daughters; but the indiscretions of a few idle fast people should not be taken as a sample of the behaviour of an entire field. In the crowd and bustle of hunting, the large majority of the people are seriously engaged in the business of the day, and have no time to indulge in flirtations. Certainly no sane man would choose a meet or covert side, where he is surrounded by a crowd of people, to do his love-making. If the usual discretion is observed in the choice of a companion for a young lady going to and returning from a hunt, she would have far less opportunity for “frivol,” than in any ordinary ball room or theatre. We need only watch hunting men and women passing through a crowded gateway, to see that each one goes in turn, and that there is very little consideration for sex.
FALLS.
Although the subject of falling is not a pleasant one to discuss, still we cannot ignore it, for even the best horsewoman occasionally gets hurt by her horse falling with her. Accidents sometimes occur over the most trivial obstacles, and when least expected; and are not confined to jumping, for some of the worst falls have happened on the flat. I remember Captain King-King breaking three ribs and a collar-bone—a pretty good dose in one gulp—by his mount coming down with him on the flat when hunting in Leicestershire. The late Whyte Melville met his death by a similar accident; and poor Archbishop Wilberforce was killed while quietly hacking, by his horse putting his foot in a hole and throwing him on his head. Unfortunately, we are unable to learn the art of falling correctly, because we have only one neck, and, if we break that, our experiments must abruptly cease. We may, however, minimise the danger of its fracture by leaning well back at our fences, and by ducking our chins into our chests when we feel ourselves coming the inevitable cropper. The worst kind of fall is when a horse breasts a stiff fence and either turns a complete somersault, or falls violently on to his head. In the former case, the accident generally means severe internal injuries, to say the least of it; in the latter, a broken collar-bone or concussion of the brain. Such bad accidents are happily rare; for, if a horse can jump, he will certainly do his best to clear an obstacle with his fore legs, and if he catches his hind ones and comes down, our chances of either being killed, or crippled for life, are far smaller. In Leicestershire I once saw a stranger send his mount at a posts and rails fence about five feet high, which the animal breasted and went over with a sickening fall; but I could not help thinking that the man must have been either riding a hireling, or 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.