A LESSON IN LEAPING. I55 



obstacles to encounter. In saying this, I of course mean 

 where the banks are sound, for if either the taking-off or 

 landing-ground happens to be marshy or rotten, there in 

 nothing more conducive to a ducking. 



Horses do not, as a rule, enjoy jumping water ; some 

 blood ones don't object to it, but most animals hate it, and 

 will refuse if they can, especially where they have at any 

 time had what is called " a cold bath." Should you ever 

 happen to be riding a horse who, on seeing water, gradually 

 shortens his stride, and " shuts up " as he approaches it, do 

 not try to get him over, for you may be certain that he 

 will not have it. All very fine, it may be, to talk about 

 not allowing yourself to be conquered, but the strongest 

 effort in the world won't make a horse jump water safely 

 when he once refuses it, and it will not be pleasant to 

 stand cudgelling him upon the bank, while he plants his 

 toes in the sedges every time that you bring him back to 

 it, with an air as though he were saying, "You may 

 keep me here till doomsday, but over it I won't go, unless 

 you hire a skiff to carry me." 



A good water-jumper, going skimming along, ought to 

 clear eighteen or twenty feet : even five-and-twenty not 

 being over-much accounted of (with Irish horses, at all 

 events) where the banks are sound ; yet, as a rule, a 

 brimming brook of fourteen feet will generally stop at 

 least half a large field. There are two reasons for this : 

 firstly, if the water is visible from a distance, horses 

 slacken, and riders funk ; and secondly, if it runs between 

 banks, they gallop up to look at it, and then, all is lost. 



