MANAGING REFUSERS. 159 



scarce checked upon their lips, and gallop off to seek some 

 other means of getting over. 



I have seen this sort of thing scores of times, and have 

 felt angry and sorry about it together— angry at witnessing 

 the punishment to the horse, as well as at being kept back 

 myself when I wanted to get forward, and sorry for the 

 ignorance, and occasionally the tejuper^ which was the 

 cause of it all. 



Most riders — ladies especially — seem to have a firmly- 

 rooted conviction that horses only refuse from vice, and 

 consequently they form an idea that to whip it out of them 

 will be the very best method of procedure that they can 

 possibly adopt. A more ignorant theory could not by any 

 possibility be acted upon. Unskilled riders, or those who 

 are unpossessed of sufficient bodily strength to pull their 

 horses well together when coming up to a fence (so as to 

 make the animals shorten their stride and collect themselves 

 before reaching it), will frequently meet with refusals ; 

 whereas, an accomplished horsewoman, even though la- 

 bouring under the disadvantage of being mounted upon 

 a vastly inferior animal, will be carried safely over, without 

 any attempt to baulk. The truth is, a horse that is ridden 

 either wildly or carelessly at his fences will be almost 

 certain to refuse them, because he feels instinctively that 

 he cannot take the jump with safety, or knows perhaps that, 

 owing to the non-regulation of his speed, he will be 

 compelled to take-off too soon, or not soon enough. This 

 is one reason for refusing. Horses do not like endangering 

 themselves; they are often more methodical, more cool- 



