88 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. 



answering wrist and leg with disciplined activity, ready 

 to " rein back/' "pass," " wheel," 



" And high curvet that not in vain, 

 The sword-sway may descend amain 

 On foeman's casque below." 



Chifney, the great jockey of his day, wrote an ela- 

 borate treatise on handling, laying down the somewhat 

 untenable position,, that even a racehorse should be 

 held as if with a silken thread. 



I have noticed, too, that our best steeplechase riders 

 have particularly fine hands when crossing a country 

 with hounds ; nor does their professional practice seem 

 to make them over-hasty at their fences, when there is 

 time to do these with deliberation. I imagine that to 

 ride a steeplechase well, over a strong line, is the highest 

 possible test of what we may call "all-round" horse- 

 manship. My own experience in the silk jacket has 

 been of the slightest ; ,and I confess that, like Falstaff 

 with his reasons, I never fancied being rattled quite so 

 fast at my fences " on compulsion. " 



One of the finest pieces of riding I ever witnessed 

 was in a steeplechase held at Melton, as long ago as 

 the year 1864, when, happening to stand near the brook, 

 eighteen feet of water, I observed my friend Captain 

 Coventry come down at it. Choosing sound ground 



