LEAPING AND JUMPING 201 



he takes a long jump, the farther is his body projected, there being two 

 agencies at work in propelling him, namely, the power of the muscles, to 

 which is added the impetus gathered by the speed in approaching the jump. 

 It is not found in practice that great speed or impetus in a forward direction 

 (chiefly) is helpful in surmounting high jumps, and the reason is that 

 greater weight is thrown on the forehand, and this will impose more 

 difficulty on the leading fore-leg, whose office it is to raise the forehand off 

 the ground. A certain angle of elevation, of course, is necessary to carry a 

 long body over a level jump, but the angle being low, nearly all the impetus 

 of a fast horse is expended in the right direction. Practical steeplechase- 

 riders are wont to say that a slower pace brings out the longest jump a 

 pace something short of the topmost, but still having plenty of " weigh " at 

 the point of taking- off. In jumping fences at slow paces (and these are 

 recommended by the cognoscenti), the clever jumper before referred to gets 

 his hind-feet as much under him as possible, so as to expend nearly all the 

 energy gained by straightening the hind-legs in projecting his body upward. 

 He increases the angle of elevation by raising his head. His front legs will 

 be doubled up and his hind straightened to their utmost at the moment of 

 taking a high jump. As to the attitude the rider should assume, there is 

 some difference both of opinion and practice among experts, and we need 

 not here enter into the subject beyond referring the reader to the poses of 

 riders in the illustrations. These have been evolved out of the necessity of 

 keeping in the saddle, and though we can conceive of certain attitudes on 

 the part of the rider which might ease his " mount ", those of our horseman 

 on Plates LX and LXI do for the most part conform to the general laws of 

 mechanics. 



Landing over a Jump. While suspended, the good jumper will tuck 

 his feet up as closely as possible. No sooner do his hind-legs leave the 

 ground than he thus prepares himself for anything that may happen; he 

 may not be able to see the landing-place, and he is ready for a deep ditch 

 or other contingency. The careless or untrained animal, on the other hand, 

 drags his hind-legs behind him, and is liable to land upon the top rail of a 

 fence, and cannot avail himself of an intermediate cat-like spring from it, or 

 from the summit of a wall or other obstacle, which trick is a most valuable 

 acquisition among the best of Irish horses and others accustomed to jump 

 stone walls. Some of the best jumpers keep their limbs quite still while in 

 mid-air, but there is no absolute rule, each horse caring for his own safety 

 in the way which commends itself to his individual judgment. If we watch 

 the trained performer at a distance, he appears to come down with both fore- 

 feet at once, but closer observation enables us to see that one foot is invari- 

 ably in advance of the other, and receives practically all the weight, the 



