LEAPING. 89 



legs are at times in the air together off the ground, and 

 numbers of sun pictures have proved the gallop to be a suc- 

 cession of bounds. Nothing short of a winged horse can be 

 " lifted^'' over his fences. The action of the hands and arms 

 in "lifting" may induce the horse to increased effort as he 

 is about to spring, but in the sense the term is generally 

 applied it is senseless. In a vast majority of cases this inter- 

 ference \vith the due freedom of his movements will flurry 

 him and prevent his taking off at the proper time and place. 

 The pupil is on a thoroughly made hunter, and if " on the 

 bare earth exposed he lies," the fault will be his own; he 

 must either tumble off or, by awkward handling of the reins, 

 cause the horse to jump short or otherwise bungle the fence, 

 and so bring him to grief. He must begin with something 

 small, simple, and easy, which he must learn to do well- 

 The horse, I take it, is one of those that can be depended on 

 to jump in cold blood. Many of the best that ever crossed 

 a country in the wake of a pack of hounds utterly repudiate 

 the idea of "larking" or. "schoohng." On some old hunters 

 the presence of hounds produces an excitement instanta- 

 neously recuperative of physical powers — all their prostrated 

 energies suddenly revive, groggy stiffness and staleness give 

 place to sprightly eagerness, and, like " the antlered monarch 

 of the waste," they sniff the tainted gale, and listening to 

 the cry that thickens as the chase draws nigh, are eager for 

 the fray. But in his sober hum-drum moments of cold 

 blood this same horse may positively decline to look at a 

 fence of any kind. Many contend that all horses dislike 

 jumping; are afraid of it. Such is not my experience. 

 Some are so fond of it that no enclosure will keep them 

 within bounds, and I have seen extraordinary leaps, not the 

 product of fright, taken by all sorts and conditions of horses, 

 from the thoroughbred yearling to the Shire colt. 



