Jumping 277 



some cases fantastic and unnatural many of them 

 could not be chanced. The chief obstacle in the 

 course was a combination of high bank and fly- 

 fence with a ditch. The competitor had first to 

 jump the fence and then the ditch on to a sloping 

 bank ten feet high. After scrambling up this bank 

 he was confronted with a four-foot ledge and then 

 another ten-foot bank. The top was about eight 

 feet broad and an almost perpendicular drop of 

 nearly twenty feet completed a very formidable ob- 

 stacle, which taxed the pluck and tendons of the 

 horses very highly. 



Height and not length has till recently been the 

 usual characteristic of the obstacles at International 

 horse shows, and to jump height the animal must 

 learn to be an excellent judge of where to take off, 

 and must get right back on his hocks before he does 

 so. One of the best trick-jumpers I ever saw would 

 always refuse if he did not get into his proper 

 stride, sooner than go through the fence; yet 

 although he refused, he was quite ready to have 

 another try without any punishment or coercion. 

 It was palpable that he refused in the same way as 



