88 HORSEMANSHIP. 



to give his horse the smallest assistance. Though, by firm 

 handling of the bridle, the horse as he nears a fence must 

 be made to feel that there must be no refusal, and that 

 swerving will not be tolerated; yet the instant that he is 

 about to gather himself for the effort, all bit-pressure must 

 be slacked off, and he must be permitted to negociate the 

 obstacle in his own way. There is no mistaking the 

 indications a horse telegraphs to his rider when he means 

 jumping. When he comes at his fence cheerfully and 

 determinedly, pricking his ears, and collecting his stride so 

 that the powerful sweep of his haunches may be brought 

 to bear, he is certain to try, and by his momentum almost 

 as certain to land over it. 



If horses possessed the gift of speech they would, on 

 nearing a fence, be it a flight of sheep hurdles, a stiff 

 " oxer," a high, strong and spiteful-looking buU-fincher, an 

 awkward stile, or water, exclaim, ^' Pray give me liberty of 

 head, and ease off that abominable pressure on my chin, 

 unless you w^ant to cramp my jumping powers, throw me 

 down, and come yourself an 'imperial crowner.'" We hear 

 of men lifting their horses clean over big fences. It is an 

 expression and nothing more. How can any one, seated 

 on a moving object weighing, say twelve to thirteen hundred 

 pounds, to say nothing of his own ten to sixteen stones, lift, 

 without any purchase, over half a ton off the ground some 

 seven feet two and a half inches, the height cleared recently 

 by the Canadian gelding Filemateur? When Emblem 

 cleared thirty-six feet three inches at Birmingham, and 

 Chandler covered a still greater distance at Leamington, 

 they did so by their own unaided enormous jumping powers 

 and momentum, their riders did not lift them the decimal 

 of an inch. A lately executed instantaneous photograph 

 demonstrated the fact that even in the trot the horse's all four 



