HANDLING YOUR HORSE 59 



When you have made your young horse 

 thoroughly familiar with the things he must come 

 in contact with, and he is quiet to ride, you will 

 be anxious to give him his first lesson in jumping. 

 In this proceeding you must expend as much time 

 and patience as you gave to the preliminary hand- 

 ling. "VVhyte-Melville says : '^ Do not forget, how- 

 ever, that education should be gradual as moonrise, 

 perceptible, not in progress, but result." In other 

 words, you must not attempt to teach higher 

 mathematics until your pupil has mastered simple 

 arithmetic. Whyte- Melville's ''Riding Recollec- 

 tions " is a book every young rider should 

 thoroughly digest. It is not only pleasant read- 

 ing, but is full of wisdom, and I know of nothing 

 that has been written on the subject of horseman- 

 ship which can compare with it. 



Some horses are natural jumpers, and require 

 very little tuition, but very few jump in good form 

 without being properly schooled. A man with 

 good nerve will take a horse that has never been 

 over a fence in its life, and ride it across country 

 in the wake of hounds. He will probably get 

 several falls, which I consider very often destroy 

 the confidence of a bold young horse, but he will 

 succeed in getting his mount either over or through 

 the fences. This is a rough and ready method 

 which I do not recommend. Of course our first 

 object is to get after hounds, and it is better to 

 walk through a hedge than to be left behind, but 

 in my view half the pleasure in riding across 



