Hands! Gentle Hands! <br />When the Field at covert stands, <br />When your four-rear-old is sweating, <br />Foamed and fidgety and fretting <br />As a stray hound jumps the netting - <br />You can steady him and soothe him with your Hands! <br />Hands! Clever Hands! <br />When your tiring hunter lands <br />Over wall or ditch or double <br />With his noseband in the stubble, <br />That's the moment you're in trouble <br />If you have not got the saving gift of Hands! <br />Hands! Steady Hands! <br />When your reins seem useless bands, <br />With a mad brute going faster <br />And a toss-up which is master, <br />You may still avoid disaster <br />If Providence has given to you Hands! <br />Hands! Talking Hands! <br />At the fence below the Stands, <br />When you call on him to lead them, <br />That's the moment when you need them, <br />That's the time a horse will heed them <br />As you bring him up and help him with your Hands! <br />Hands! Horseman's Hands! <br />When the stooping fairy stands <br />At the cradle of a baby, <br />She has richer gifts, it may be, <br />But she never brought a better one than Hands!<br /><br />William Henry Ogilvie<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/hands-11/
