Teaching a Horse to Jump. 3 1 1 



him plenty of lucerne, carrots, corn and hay ; take off his 

 shoes ; * lower ' his heels ; treat him for thrush ; and exercise 

 him on the soft ground of the riding-school. I may here 

 mention the interesting fact, without stopping to offer any 

 explanation of it in this place, that if the tan which is used 

 in riding-schools be allowed to remain in a horse's feet, it 

 will cause their frogs to rot away in a short time. Conse- 

 quently, the feet of animals which are worked on such soil 

 should be * picked out ' immediately they come off it. As 

 I am on the subject of veterinary treatment, it may not be 

 out of place if I mention that a solution of as much iodoform 

 and camphor, or of camphor alone, as any required quantity 

 of oil of turpentine will dissolve, is an admirable applica- 

 tion for thrush. I began to put Gustave's mouth in order 

 by means of the long reins and standing martingale ; and 

 gave him his first lessons in jumping 'at liberty/ for which 

 work I had the advantage of knowing how to use the lung- 

 ing whip, which has obtained its name of chambriere (house- 

 maid) in French, from the able manner in which it puts 

 horses in order. The jumps over which I practised Gustave, 

 both at liberty, and with the long reins, were a heavy log 

 and a wall made of wooden planks, neither of which could 

 be 'chanced' with impunity. As he had to go over them 

 about a dozen times a day, he soon learned the important 

 lesson that it was pleasanter to jump than to rap his shins. 

 I took care that the notion of refusing did not remain long 

 in his mind. I have no doubt that many of my readers who 

 have followed me up to this, will think that I adopted 

 the best possible means of disgusting the horse with jumping, 

 by giving him so much of it, and that I did not succeed in 

 spoiling him, solely on account of his marvellous forbearance 

 and good temper. So far from the grey gelding being of an 

 ingenuous turn of mind, he was as artful as the proverbial 

 <:art-load of monkeys, and obeyed only because he found 

 that it was better policy to do so than to resist. The idea 

 that it disgusts a horse to jump him time after time over 



