136 EQUINE LOCOMOTION. 



Indian or Arab horses buck. I remember that almost 

 every ^' green" AustraHan horse which was imported into 

 India forty years ago, was a buck-jumxper; but this vice 

 has now become much rarer among Australasian horses, 

 owing to their being reared under more civilised con- 

 ditions. In describing this vice, I cannot do better than 

 repeat what I have said about it in Riding and Hunting. 

 The buck- jumper with the quickness of thought, throws 

 his head between his fore legs (Fig. 195). At the same 

 moment he arches his back, bounds in the air with his 

 head and shoulders down, his fore legs thrust straight out 

 to the front, and his hind legs gathered under him 

 (Fig. 196). The difficulty in sitting him consists chiefly 

 in the fact that the suddenness of the downward move- 

 ment of his head is very apt to cause the rider to be 

 pulled forward on to his neck, by means of the reins, and 

 that the shock of the impact of the fore legs with the 

 ground and the violent cant of the loins will, in such a 

 case, generally complete the disconnection. The regular 

 buck-jumper will buck forwards, to one side, or even 

 backwards, until he dislodges his rider. Or, not content 

 with this, he may go on until he breaks the girths, gets 

 through the saddle, or tires himself out. When he 

 succeeds in breaking the girths, he usually does so by 

 getting the saddle on to his neck during his convulsive 

 movements, and then, when he throws up his head, some- 

 thing must go. No matter how strong a seat a man may 

 have, he will be almost certain to part company with his 

 mount, if in the first instance he makes the mistake of 

 '^hanging" on to the reins. I can say from experience that 

 when a horse bucks, the rider suddenly becomes aware 

 that there is nothing in front of the pommel of the saddle 

 except a sheer precipice, and feels himself jerked forward 

 without having anything to hold on to. In the Colonies, 

 a horse is said to ''pig-jump," when he bucks only 

 forward ; but if he supplements that movement by the 

 still more disconcerting action of bucking to one side or 



