LEAPING. 91 



horse has topped the fence, and is on his downward journey 

 along the parabola he is describing, he extends his neck, and 

 should the rider's hold of his head refuse to relax and to 

 humour this extension motion, then the poor animal, on 

 landing, will be embarrassed by finding the said rider 

 perched on his pack-wax a foot or so in front of the saddle, 

 his neck encircled by the gentleman's arms in perfervid 

 embrace. The result may be that both come to the ground. 

 It is not easy, should the horse at once resume his pace, to 

 crawl or wriggle back into the saddle, and the effort gene- 

 rally ends in a "pip." 



Had the rider been possessed of strong arms, "hands of 

 iron," and a firm unyielding seat, and had he been permitted 

 to use a curb-bridle, there would probably be a fiasco^ and 

 especially so if the fence had been ridden at at any pace. 

 Denied that forward stretching-out liberty of head, the horse, 

 pinched by the curb, with his chin in his chest, *' props," i.e.^ 

 sticks his two fore-feet on landing firm into the ground ; held 

 by the curb he is unable to " get away," or, in other words, 

 to pick up his fore-feet and resume his canter or gallop, con- 

 sequently the weight of his own body, and that of his rider, 

 multiplied by the initial velocity, revolve in a circle round 

 the firmly planted hoofs and a somersault, the man below, 

 the horse above, both on their backs, is the unpleasant 

 finale. 



One of the greatest difficulties the tyro has to overcome is 

 the inabiUty, at first, to yield to the extension of the horse's 

 head without being pulled forward out of the saddle ; he will 

 persist in " riding in the horse's mouth," or holding on by 

 the reins. In order to obviate this tendency as much as 

 possible, a good plan — one only, however, to be put in 

 practice when the horse can be depended on to jump for 

 certain, or when the pupil is well advanced and well shaken 



