122 HORSES AND RIDING. 



If a horse lias acquired a habit of going at a ditch 

 as hard as he can pelt, it will be a difficult matter to 

 cure him ; the only way is to make him walk up to 

 a ditch several times and then walk along it, instead 

 of jumping it, and then turn his head to it when he 

 is too close to rush at it, and has to jump it stand- 

 ing. This will get him out of it by degrees, if 

 anything will. 



Great injury is done to young horses by checking 

 them with the bridle when they alight after a jump. 

 This leads them to associate jumping with pain, and 

 makes them either refase or go wildly at the leap to 

 get it over as soon as possible. This habit of check- 

 ing a horse at his leap arises from one of two things ; 

 either the rider is afraid the horse will take off with 

 him, and checks him to prevent this happening, or 

 else he cannot sit on the horse when leaping, without 

 holding on by his bridle. In the first case the 

 checking is voluntary, and in the second it is involun- 

 tary, and the rider often does not know that he does 

 it. The cure in the first place is to allow the horse 

 to go on at any speed he pleases, and pull him up 

 after he has gone a little way, and the cure for the 

 second is to ride with a breastplate on the horse, 

 and when he jumps, take hold of the breastplate, with 

 the hand that is not holding the reins. The rider 

 will thus be enabled to hold himself on without 

 hurting his horse's mouth and making him go 

 unjpleasantly. This is in cases where the rider holds 



