Dont Lose your Bridle. 153 



in his new stride. It is also said that the best 

 water-jumpers skim and do not rise much to the 

 jump. But I fancy that every horse rises more 

 to water than the fancy drawn pictures show. 

 Gravitation alone, it seems, would make this nec- 

 essary. Photography would prove the fact, but 

 there are probably not enough such photographs 

 extant to-day to decide upon the question. 



You may read a dozen volumes about jumping, 

 Tom, but a dozen jumps will teach you a dozen 

 times as much as the printer's ink. And remem- 

 ber that a standing or an irregular jump, even if 

 small, or that the leap of a pony, is harder to sit 

 than a well-timed jump of twice the dimensions 

 on a full grown horse. I have been nearly dis- 

 mounted in teaching a new horse much oftener 

 than in the hunting-field. It is only when your 

 horse comes down, or when a bad jumper rushes 

 at his fence and then swerves or refuses suddenly, 

 that there is any grave danger of a fall in riding 

 to hounds. 



Don't be afraid of a fall. It won't hurt you 

 much in nineteen cases out of twenty. If you 

 find you are really going and can't save yourself, 

 don't stiffen. Try to flop, the more like a drunken 

 man the better. It is rigid muscles which break 

 bones. This is a hard rule to learn. Many falls 

 alone teach its uses. A suggestion will by no 

 means do so. But hold on to your reins for 



