222 RIDING ACROSS COUNTRY. 



various leaps without any interference whatever. If 

 he takes them a shade faster than did the animal on 

 which she rode over her first fence, she should not try 

 to check him. As it is impossible for her to know the 

 exact moment he is going to take off, she should give 

 him his head, when he is coming up to the obstacle, 

 and be ready to lean well back as he is landing over 

 it. If a lady is riding with her reins too short, and 

 the horse, in jumping, makes a sudden snatch to get 

 more rein, she should at once let them slip through 

 her fingers, and learn, from that experience, to ride 

 with the reins sufficiently long to enable her to have 

 an easy feel of her horse's mouth, without in any way 

 hanging on to his head. Some inexperienced ladies get 

 alarmed when a horse is about to take off, and check 

 him with the reins, which is a most dangerous proceed- 

 ing. I have known the safest of jumpers pulled into 

 their fences and caused to fall by the adoption of such 

 tactics. A lady should remember that when her 

 mount is going straight for a fence, with the intention 

 of getting safely to the other side, any interference on 

 her part will cause him to either blunder badly, or, if 

 the jump is a fixture, to fall. If a horse slackens speed 

 when near a fence, and suddenly runs out, his rider 

 should let him refuse and take him at it again. I once 

 got a very bad fall through turning a horse quickly 

 at a fence which he was in the act of refusing. We 

 were close to the jump, he had no time to take off 

 properly, so he breasted the obstacle, a stiff timber 

 jump, and blundered on to his head. That taught me 



