GERMAN LEAPING 207 



priety, and we would begin to chatter French as glibly as, 

 if not with the brogue of, denizens of Paris — for it might 

 be company. What in those Gallo-Teutonic days they 

 used to call the Parforce Jagd was stag or boar hunting 

 in the saddle, during which you were compelled to ride 

 over all kinds of country, sometimes stiff enough. This 

 was not done at racing pace, nor were the obstacles as 

 bad as the ox-fences in the Midland counties ; but still it 

 Avas fairish sport, and the game was better worth having 

 than Reynard's brush or pads, for the pack is wont to de- 

 vour Reynard, while we used to eat the stag or boar (when 

 we got him) at the hunt-dinner in the evening, or a day or 

 two later when he had got more tender. The run was 

 not infrequently through heavy timber, where there were 

 many fallen trees to clear, and a deal of thicket to get 

 through ; and I have seen excellent horsemanship in such 

 a hunt. Horsemanship is relative. Because Buffalo Bill 

 or Sotnik Dmitri Peshkof could not keep in the same field 

 with the hounds over a difficult country is no proof that 

 either falls short of being one of the best of horsemen. 



I think the German military rider is a trifle stiff ; and 

 I do not like the way the soldier is taught his leaping ex- 

 ercises. It is rather absurd to make so much account of 

 jumping; but the world is agog on the subject, and he 

 that leapeth a six-foot fence is greater than he that taketh 

 a city. No horse in cold blood leaps willingly with any- 

 thing but an easy bit ; and yet the German soldier is 

 taught to use his curb exclusively. The obstacle the en- 

 listed man leaps at squad-drill is a small affair, over which 

 the horse could almost step if he tried hard, and of course 

 the commonest troop horse clears it easily. But I have 

 never, seen a German soldier sit down on his horse at even 

 such a leap ; he does not curl his sitting-bones under him, 

 as the phrase runs, but relies on the stirrups and goes out 



