126 HORSES AND EIDING. 



It must be remembered that I am now speaking 

 only of horses leaping in what is called cold blood, 

 when they are neither blown nor tired. 



In a run, it will be advisable to collect a horse by 

 supporting his head when he is blown and tired, up 

 to the moment of his taking off, but even then his 

 head should be perfectly at liberty the moment he is 

 in the air. Next to the fence I have described, a 

 post and rail with a wide brook is one of the most 

 difficult to get over, and when the brook comes first 

 it is almost impracticable, if not quite so. When the 

 rail comes first, there are two possibilities of getting 

 a fall ; one, if your horse takes off some little distance 

 before he gets to the rail, in which case he is very 

 likely not to jump far enough to clear the brook, and 

 the other if he takes off too near the rail, in which 

 case he is liable to touch the rail, and prevent him- 

 self from reaching out far enough with his fore feet 

 to clear the brook. 



It is, I believe, a generally assumed maxim, that 

 you ought to ride fast at water, and this may be 

 true where the take off is very soft or where the 

 jump is very wide indeed. But horses can jump 

 much further when going at a slow canter than people 

 o'ive them credit for. 



An ordinary hunter galloping on grass will cover 

 from sixteen to eighteen feet at each stride, and a very 

 slight additional spring will take him over twenty 

 feet of ground. Now there are not many people who 



