The Horse and His Rider

Part 1

Transcriber's notes:

+Plus signs+ have been used to indicate small caps. underscores have been used to identify italics. =equal signs= have been used to identify bold text.

Minor punctuation errors have been corrected.

The original book contains instances of hyphenated and unhyphenated variants of words. These have been retained.

THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER.

+By SIR FRANCIS B. HEAD, Bart.+

WORKS BY SIR FRANCIS HEAD.

ROUGH NOTES OF JOURNEYS ACROSS THE PAMPAS AND OVER THE ANDES. Post 8vo. 2s. 6d.

"None of Sir Francis Head's works have achieved a greater popularity than his Gallop across the Pampas. Written thoroughly con amore, and with the easy flow of ideas that seem, like their originator, to be swinging along at a hand-gallop, he carries us away with him over the boundless plains of South America, free and untrammelled as himself."--Frazer's Magazine, Jan. 1861.

DESCRIPTIVE ESSAYS. 2 Vols. Post 8vo. 18s.

BUBBLES FROM THE BRUNNEN OF NASSAU. By an +Old Man+. 16mo. 5s.

THE EMIGRANT. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d.

STOKERS AND POKERS; or, the London and North-Western Railway. Post 8vo. 2s. 6d.

DEFENCELESS STATE OF GREAT BRITAIN. Post 8vo. 12s.

A FAGGOT OF FRENCH STICKS. 2 Vols. Post 8vo. 12s.

A FORTNIGHT IN IRELAND. Map. 8vo. 12s.

"Sir Francis Head's works are now so well known to the British public that it is almost superfluous to criticise their merits or their style.

"His descriptions remind us of Hogarth. There is the same minute attention to details, the same truthfulness of outline, the same undercurrent of humour."--Frazer's Magazine, Jan. 1861.

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

LONDON: PRINTED BY W. CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET, AND CHARING CROSS.

+the hounds are LATE to-day!+

FRONTISPIECE]

THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER.

+By SIR FRANCIS B. HEAD, Bart.+

He grew unto his seat; And to such wond'rous doing brought his horse, As he had been incorps'd and demy-natur'd With the brave beast.

Hamlet, Act iv. Scene 7.

SECOND EDITION.

LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1861.

Part 2

The right of Translation is reserved.

PREFACE.

The writer of this little volume deems it only fair to forewarn his readers that he is not, and never has been, an inhabitant of that variegated region in creation commonly called "the sporting world."

He has never bred, raced, steeple-chased, nor betted sixpence on any colt, filly, horse, or mare. He has never seen, nor been seen by, the Jockey-Club. He has never been on the turf. He does not belong to "the ring."

Nevertheless, sometimes in the performance of public duties,--sometimes from private inclination,--sometimes for the benefit of his health,--sometimes for recreation,--sometimes for rumination,--sometimes to risk his life,--and more than once to save it, he has, throughout a long and chequered career, had to do an amount of rough-riding, a little larger than has fallen to the lot of many men.

His observations and reflections on horses and horsemen he now ventures to submit to that portion only of the community who, like himself, preferring a long tether to a short one, take exercise on four legs, instead of on two.

CONTENTS.

+Page+

+Preface+ 3

+Contents+ 5

+Preliminary Observations--The Horse+ 7

+Mr. Rarey's mode of subduing Horses--compared with that practised in South America+ 16

+Difference between the character and conduct of a wild horse and a tame one+ 24

+Horsemanship--a just seat--a light hand--their advantages in riding, in leaping, in galloping over rough ground, in going fast down hill, in falling+ 28

+A jump into a stone-quarry--the Mameluke's leap out of the Citadel of Cairo--Letter from Gen. Moore, and story of his fall on horseback over a precipice of 237 feet+ 44

+Mode of riding at Timber+ 51

+Water Jumping--Scene at a Northamptonshire brook+ 54

+Different ways of Swimming a Horse+ 62

+Judicious Riding+ 63

+Use and Abuse of Spurs+ 65

+How to treat a Hunter in the Field+ 74

+How to bring a Hunter Home+ 80

+How to Dress for Hunting+ 89

+How to Eat and Drink for Hunting+ 97

+Difference between Leicestershire and Surrey Hunting+ 104

+The Stable+ 106

+On Shoeing+ 114

+On Roughing Horses+ 119

Part 3

+Saddles+ 121

+Bridles+ 126

+Intrinsic Value of a Horse+ 130

+On Shying+ 132

+On Singeing+ 136

+Meet of the Pytchley Hounds at Arthingworth to draw Waterloo Gorse+ 143

+Effects created by the Sight of Hounds on Horses, Men, Women, Children, Sheep, Lambs+ 152

+Cruelty of Hunting Considered+ 159

+The Lamb and the Fox+ 163

+Beneficial Results, social and pecuniary, of Hunting+ 167

+Sketch of the Life and Death of Thomas Assheton Smith+ 173

+On Military Horse-power+ 195

+On Hobbling and Anchoring Cavalry Horses+ 206

+On Chloroforming Horses+ 215

MAN AND HIS RIDER.

MODE, IN NORTHERN PARTS OF SOUTH AMERICA, OF RIDING OVER THE ANDES, ON A RED INDIAN.

QUERY, which IS "THE SAVAGE?"

To face page 7.]

THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER.

+The Horse.+

In almost every region of the globe, not only on its surface, but at different depths beneath it, the history of the horse is recorded.

"Fossil remains," says Colonel Hamilton Smith in the twelfth volume of the Naturalist's Library, "of the horse have been found in nearly every part of the world. His teeth lie in the Polar ice along with the bones of the Siberian mammoth; in the Himalaya mountains with lost, and but recently obtained, genera; in the caverns of Ireland; and, in one instance, from Barbary, completely fossilized. His bones, accompanied by those of the elephant, rhinoceros, tiger, and hyæna, rest by thousands in the caves in Constadt; in Sevion at Argenteuil with those of the mastodon; in Val d'Arno and on the borders of the Rhine with colossal urus."

But what is most deserving of attention is that while all the other genera and species, found under the same conditions, have either ceased to exist, or have removed to higher temperatures, the horse alone has remained to the present time in the same regions, without, it would appear, any protracted interruption; fragments of his skeleton continuing to be traced upwards, in successive formations, to the present surface of the earth--the land we live in.

In like manner in history, sacred, profane, and modern, the horse is to be found omnipresent, sharing in the conquests, in the defeats, in the prosperity, in the adversity, in the joys, in the sorrows, in the occupations, and in the amusements of man.

In Genesis xlvii. 17, Moses records that the Egyptians (1729 years before Christ), at a time when the famine was sore in the land of Canaan, gave to Joseph their horses in exchange for bread.

Two hundred and thirty-eight years afterwards (1491 +B.C.+), six hundred chosen chariots for nobles and generals, all the war chariots of Egypt armed with iron to break the enemy's battalions, the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh, in their pursuit of the children of Israel, were overthrown in the midst of the Red Sea, so that there remained not so much as one of them.--(Exodus, chap. xiv.)

"Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea."--Exodus, chap. xv.

The Canaanites whom Joshua engaged at the waters of Merom had cavalry, and a multitude of chariots drawn by horses. Sisera, general of Jabin, King of Hazor, had 900 chariots of iron. Judah could not get possession of the lands because the ancient inhabitants of the country were strong in chariots of iron. The Philistines, in their war against Saul, had 30,000 chariots and 6000 horsemen. David having taken 1000 chariots of war from Hadadezer, King of Syria, hamstrung the horses, and burned 900 chariots. During the latter periods of the Jewish monarchy Palestine abounded in horses.

Part 4

In 1 Kings, chap, iv., it is stated that Solomon had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 horsemen.

Cyntacus, a King of Ethiopia, entered Egypt at the head of 100,000 cavalry; and from that period to Balaklava, and from it to the last battle in modern history, horses in greater or less numbers have shared in the dangers of war.

In many instances the history of an individual horse forms part and parcel of the history of his rider: accordingly we learn that Bucephalus (so called because his head resembled that of a bull, Βου κεφαλος), when thirty years old, saved the life of Alexander the Great, who, in remembrance, built a city which he called after his name.

We are, moreover, taught in our schools, that the Emperor C. Caligula, as an especial honour to his favourite horse, not only created him a high-priest and consul, but caused him to live in marble apartments, in which he stalked about adorned with the most valuable trappings and pearls the Roman empire could supply.

In statuary, ancient as well as modern, the horse lives with his rider.

On the frieze of the Temple of Minerva, in the Acropolis of Athens, at Nineveh, and numerous other localities, are to be seen sculptured or painted, more or less beautifully, ancient figures of men on horseback.

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