ANGLO-FRENCH HORSEMANSHIP 



THE HUNTER 



If a horse and rider have been carefully trained 

 up to this point, it will require very little 

 practice to make them both good across 

 country. It is merely a matter of going to 

 work quietly and avoiding everything that 

 would tend to make either of them nervous. 

 They should not be forced over fences. Easy 

 places should be chosen, and the horse should 

 at first be allowed to get over them in the way 

 he finds most satisfactory to his nerves. Some 

 like to go fast, others slow, at their fences. 

 As confidence increases it is easy to gradually 

 regulate or increase the pace, but, as a rule, it 

 is best to ride slowly at all kinds of jumps, 

 provided the rider feels that he has plenty 

 of energy under him. As much as possible a 

 young horse should be allowed to choose his 

 own line and place in a fence, he will then 

 seldom refuse. If he does so, and the place is 

 really all right, wait quietly, pressing steadily 

 in the knees and thighs, and, in some cases, 

 the legs and spurs also ; talk to him in a quiet, 

 low tone of voice, and then, when you feel him 

 willing, let him go, and keep on stimulating 

 him with the legs, or turn out the toes and 

 press the spurs in steadily some little way 



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