A LESSON IN LEAPING. 153 



case where ridge and furrow, or marshy ground, have to be 

 traversed. 



You should accustom your horse to do small places 

 slowly ; blind fences and ugly trappy obstacles must be 

 negotiated with deliberation, for the very worst falls are got 

 through hustling animals at such things as these. 



You should never take your horse's attention for a moment 

 from his work. A bad rider comes "fighting up" to a 

 fence : spurring, striking, and jagging at his horse's mouth 

 — and somehow the good riders are not sorry when the 

 fretted animal jerks his tormentor off, and gallops away 

 without him. A mind at ease and undisturbed is absolutely 

 essential to a fencer ; to strike or spur him at a critical 

 moment will probably throw him out of his stride, and may 

 be the means also of throwing the rider out of the saddle. 



There are certain varieties of jumps which it will be well 

 to consider in detail, especially as beginners are apt to think 

 that if they succeed with tolerable credit in getting over a 

 few small cuttings in the country, they are fully qualified to 

 take foremost place in the ranks of fair Dianas. 



In timber-jumping, to begin with, you must remember 

 that a horse quite fresh from his stable will naturally be 

 able to accomplish much more than when half pumped out ; 

 and as a fall over timber is much nastier for a lady than 

 almost any other description of casualty, I strongly advise 

 you not to urge an animal that has jumped, say, four feet ot 

 timber with you at the first go off, to do more than three, or 

 three and a-half, at the second. The reason is simply this : 

 to accomplish timber safely a horse must risQ well a.t it ; this 



