224 HANDS AND LEGS (AIDS). 



first finger slips round the handle of the whip; and the cuts, 

 which should rarely exceed two or three, should be given 

 straight down, close behind the rider's boot, without any 

 backward swing. 



Although the explanation of changing the reins into the 

 left hand and picking up the whip has occupied some space, 

 these actions can be performed, after a little practice, with the 

 utmost rapidity. In race riding, the moment for using the 

 whip is such a critical one, that it is essential a well practised 

 method should be adopted, so that the jockey may run no 

 chance of making a fatal muddle with the reins. Such mis- 



Fig. 195. Shortening the reins before using the whip with 

 the left hand. 



takes, which would be hardly excusable in an amateur, are not 

 unfrequently committed by professionals who fancy them- 

 selves not a little. We often see jockeys " let go the reins " 

 the moment they use the whip. It strikes me, that the reason 

 they fall into this unpardonable error, is that they do not slide 

 the bridle hand forward to shorten the reins before the whip 

 hand quits them, as ought to be done. When there is little 

 time to act and none to think, the mere knowledge of the 

 proper method of doing a thing cannot be utilised. An 

 action, however, which has been sufficiently often repeated to 

 have become automatic, will be instinctively performed with- 



