THE RIDING 227 



is the unexpected which generally brings you 

 to grief. In steeplechasing, both you and your 

 horse know exactly what to expect, but there 

 are few good riders who go full speed at their 

 fences, even between the flags, unless, perhaps, 

 it is the last fence. If there was such a thing 

 as a five-furlong steeplechase with half a dozen 

 fences of fair strength, few horses would com- 

 plete the course ; but the ordinary steeplechase 

 being always over two miles, no horse is extended 

 at full speed until the finish. 



You may look on a horse as a steel spring 

 from his nose to his hind feet. When ex- 

 tended to his highest speed, the steel straightens 

 out at every stride to its full length, and at that 

 moment when hind feet and nose are the 

 farthest apart he is quite unprepared to nego- 

 tiate an unlooked-for contingency. Bend the 

 steel, and you get a power and reserve of force 

 which will be ready at any moment to shoot you 

 over the highest hedge. By bending the steel, 

 I mean making the horse arch his neck, which 

 at the same time obliges him to bring his hind 

 legs beneath him. Therefore in jumping you 

 may make the horse bend his neck, but as he 



