The above note reminds me that if at any time you should get a wetting, such as that described above, and have no welcome change at hand, you will in nine cases out of ten experience no harm, if in train or cart you cover your wet clothing with coat or rug, or even horse-cloth should nothing else be available. Some may think even a probable chill preferable to the last suggestion, but verbum sap.
The canteen for a day with staghounds will not require much thought, for between the late breakfast and early tea, which generally are possible, the demands of appetite will not be great. However, as there will be no second horseman to rely on, the sportswoman will do well to carry with her a few biscuits and a little cold essence of beef, or a slice of plum pudding, and some port wine should she prefer it. (A medical friend says there is nothing like Kola Wine.)
But now, last, though of more importance than all that has gone before, we come to the question of the hunter. To leave out of count for the moment, the points we should insist on for all women's hunters, the first great requisite for a horse that is to follow staghounds, is speed. For remember that the fastest possible form of the chase, is when a pack of large-sized foxhounds, is in pursuit of a red deer hind, over a grass country. A well-bred horse is essential, and other things being equal, if clean thoroughbred, so much the better.
[From my eleven years' experience of Stag-hunting, I have come to the conclusion that the most essential thing is that a hunter should be well-seasoned. If you ride a young horse with the stag, which would go perfectly well with foxhounds, he will go off his feed and fall all to pieces, even if you are lucky enough not to strain or over-reach him. A horse ought in my opinion to be quite seven years old, to take his turn regularly once a week stagging.
I quite agree with what you say about breeding, but for a woman the ideal horse for staghounds must not only be temperate, but in every way good-mannered. I suppose it is the rush at starting, which of course suggests racing, that excites them, but I know by experience that a horse which is a comfortable mount for a woman with Foxhounds or Harriers, may prove quite unmanageable if taken with Staghounds. A hot horse, too, even if you can ride it, takes so much out of itself, that it cannot stand the long days, and is sure to knock up. With the packs I know in Surrey and Kent, a good timber jumper is essential, and in Kent you also want a water jumper—a rare combination.—C.F.C.C.]
A good fencer will be the best to carry you in the Vale of Aylesbury or the Ashford Vale; while if you go out with the Queen's, you will need a stouter animal for their Beaconsfield country, and indeed for most of the country of the Royal Hunt. With the Wards in Ireland, you will need the very best class of horse you will ride with the Meath, and in all countries where the chase of the carted deer is pursued, you will, in my opinion, find size and scope important, as a large horse will be going well within himself while a smaller one is at a stretch. As however to every rule there is an exception, so an undoubted authority tells me, that an Arab pony standing only 14·2, was well to the front in a good run after stag one day this season (1897-8), and pounded some gallant Dragoons over a six-barred gate.
Although the fences in most stag-hunting countries are generally of a manageable size, yet as you have to gallop at them, you should have a bold free horse under you. One too which has his wits about him is perhaps, if that be possible, even more valuable after stag than after fox or hare, the pace necessitating the promptest decision and the greatest possible judgment in making the best of the unexpected, which is sure to happen, even when you think you know every inch of the country.
Stag-hunting then, we have seen, has its advantages, and I am not sure that if your lot is cast in a provincial country where the interest of watching hounds track their fox over flinty hills, from the depths of one thick covert to the recesses of another, is seldom varied by a gallop, you will not do well to take your place, at least occasionally, with the followers of the local staghounds. Of course, I am taking for granted that you are, more or less, interested in the working of hounds; but if you should be one of the hard-riding brigade, who frankly acknowledge they hunt to ride, then I should say that your best place will always be with staghounds, for with them you may reckon on the gallop which with other hounds is, and always must be, a matter of doubt. In most parts of the country you will find some staghounds within reach, at least of the "iron covert hack," and in Ireland the Wards and the Rosscommon are unrivalled for speed and incident in any land. It is only, though, the youngest, and pluckiest, and best mounted of us who can hope to live over the stiff Irish banks at the pace at which the latter hounds go. A saddening thought, but true, as many a good woman has found to her cost.
