262 SCHOOL BREAKING. 



before the great Frenchman was born. Sam Chifney, who 

 was the George Fordham of the latter end of the eighteenth 

 century, certainly knew it by the way in which he speaks 

 in Genius Genuine of riding a horse in a race " as if you 

 had a silken rein as fine as a hair, and that you were afraid 

 of breaking it." Custance in Riding Recollections says : 

 " Fordham sat back in his saddle, and, as it were, drove his 

 horse from him." He also tells that " WeDs was a very 

 strong man on a horse, and used to lap his long legs round 

 them at a finish." This style of riding has been traditional 

 among jockeys who never heard either of the " high school " 

 or of Baucher. It was taught to me in Ireland more than 

 forty years ago when I was a boy, as the old, orthodox 

 method to follow. 



One of the first maxims of the high school is that the 

 horse must yield up the initiative entirely to his rider ; 

 that is, he should do nothing of his own accord. Hence 

 the rider must remain constantly in close touch with him 

 by hand and leg. If the pressure of the unarmed heel be 

 not sufficient, the spurs will have to be kept close to the 

 horse's sides ; if possible, brushing through the hair with- 

 out touching the skin, unless required. To enable this to 

 be done, the knees have to be kept a little away from the 

 flaps of the saddle, with the result that their strength of 

 grip is considerably diminished. As the maintenance of 

 this delicate touch is impossible under conditions of rough 

 work in the open, and as its strain on the attention and 

 muscles of the horse would be unduly severe, to say nothing 

 of the loss of grip ; this method of riding is applicable only 

 to the manege, the circus, the parade ground, and on special 

 occasions, such as those of single combat between cavalry- 

 men, when the maximum amount of control over the 

 horse is required. As I have before said, school work, 

 from a breaking point of view, is a means, but not an end. 



