LEAPING. 47 



course of instruction would hardly be complete without a 

 few remarks on jumping. In clearing an obstacle, a horse 

 must to all intents and purposes go through all the motions 

 inherent to the vices of rearing, plunging, and kicking, yet 

 the three, when in rapid combination, are by no means 

 difficult to accommodate one's self to. It is best to com- 

 mence on a clever, steady horse — "a safe conveyance " that 

 will go quietly at his fences, jump them without an effort, 

 landing light as a cork, and one that will never dream of 

 refusing. As beginners, no matter what instructors may say 

 and protest, will invariably, for the first few leaps, till they 

 acquire confidence, grip, and balance, ride to some extent 

 " in the horse's mouth," they should be placed on an animal 

 with not too sensitive a mouth, one that can go pleasantly 

 in a plain snafile. 



Begin with something low, simple, and easy — say a three 

 feet high gorsed hurdle, so thickly laced with the whin that 

 daylight cannot be seen through, with a low white-painted 

 rail some little distance from it on the take-off side. If 

 there be a ditch between the rail and the fence, so much the 

 better, for the more the horse spreads himself the easier it 

 will be to the rider, the jerk or prop on landing the less 

 severe. Some horses sail over the largest obstacle, land, 

 and are away again without their appearing to call upon 

 themselves for any extra exertion ; they clear it in their 

 stride. Hunters that know their business can be trotted up 

 to five-barred gates and stiff timber, which they will clear 

 with consummate ease ; but height and width require distinct 

 efforts, and the rear and kick in this mode of negotiating 

 a fence are so pronounced and so sudden that they would be 

 certain to unseat the novice. 



It is easiest to sit a leap if the horse is ridden at it in 

 a canter or, at most, in a well-collected, slow hand-gallop. 



