250 THE HORSE IN AMERICA 



thereafter as the right fore foot is rising the left 

 rein should make a slight play and the change in 

 lead will be effected without a false step or dis- 

 turbance in pace. Every rider should practise 

 making figure eights, each circle being from 

 twenty to thirty feet in diameter, and asking his 

 horse to change the lead when going from one 

 circle to the other. In some show rings the judges 

 require that the riders do this, and those who ac- 

 complish it easily and gracefully help their score 

 very considerably. 



The American jockeys have developed a new 

 method of race riding, a kind of acrobatic horse- 

 manship, which when the English first saw it 

 they called the " monkey-on-the-stick " style. 

 The jockies use very short stirrups and seem to 

 throw the weight even forward of the withers so 

 as to relieve the hind legs, where the propelling 

 power is, from as much weight as possible. It 

 seems effective and has been almost universally 

 adopted by all save steeplechase riders, who still 

 use a stirrup long enough for both knees and legs 

 to embrace the horse or as Mr. Anderson says, 

 they still ride like men. 



