274 Modern Riding and Horse Educatioii 



difficulty, the rail being placed nearer and nearer to 

 the jump as he becomes accustomed to it, and eventu- 

 ally removed. As far as water is concerned, hunters 

 often make a great fuss about less than six feet of 

 it, a width they could cover in their stride without 

 effort. The brook or ditch cannot be too small, or 

 be ridden at too slowly to begin with; it is every- 

 thing to establish the animal's confidence at once, 

 and the pace should be gradually increased as the 

 width of the obstacle grows. Should the youngster 

 refuse even to approach water, he should be led up 

 to it with a crupper leading-rein. 



I am a believer in teaching young horses to jump 

 wire, not necessarily for after use, but by w^ay of 

 giving them a good eye for measuring distance. I 

 only know of one disadvantage to the practice, 

 which is that if a horse gets tied up in wire it 

 frightens him considerably, but a good deal of ex- 

 perience has convinced me that the effects are not 

 lasting, and he quickly learns to regard this class 

 of obstacle with respect. For instructional purposes 

 it can be made in the following manner. Two up- 

 rights fixed on to heavy stands are drilled to take 

 three or four strands of wire and placed at a suit- 



