LKAl'lNO.J 



-^lODERN VETERINAKV P U A CT K' H. 



[leavino. 



carriages or horsemen that may bo inoL wilh 

 in passing and repassing' tlu'in. 



LEAPING. 

 As to leaping, initiatory practice may be 

 had at tlie bar, at school, or at any iences 

 which may present themselve3. The rules for 

 sitting, in a leap, are precisely tho same as 

 those which refer to an animal when unquiet, 

 and alternately rearing and kicking. If it is 

 a flying leap, sit last, give the nag his head, 

 and preserve your own circumspection. It 

 may bo often necessary to touch your horse 

 with the spur or whip towards the finish of 

 his leap, in order to make him clear his hind 

 le"s ; but in the whole of this feat, much 

 ought, indeed must be, confided to the animal 

 himself. If seasoned, and a staunch fencer, it 

 is a perilous thing to drive him at a leap that 

 he, most assuredly the best and safest judge, 

 has refused. How many accidents have hap- 

 pened from this vain-glorious practice! Nor 

 is it always prudent to drive a raw horse, by 

 the force of whip and spur, at a fence that has 

 alarmed him, as it may render him habitually 

 desperate and careless. 



The way to make a horse a steady, prompt, 

 and safe fencer, is to suffer him to take it by 

 degrees, and spontaneously. Some very ex- 

 cellent hedge-fencers are naturally shy of 

 timber, in particular palings and hurdles. 

 Such horses cannot be safely put to these im- 

 pediments of any considerable height. 



For leaping, the Irish horse is unrivalled. 

 It is not, however, the leaping of the English 

 horse, striding, as it were, over a low fence, 

 and stretched at his full length over a higher 

 one; but it resembles the jump of the deer. 

 The training of the Irish horse must, we sup- 

 pose, make this difference, as in riding, in 

 that country, a horseman has to meet with 

 fences very different from those character- 

 istic of England — stone walls being common. 

 "We will, however, more particularly enter 

 into a description of some of the varieties of 

 leaps. 



The standing leap is naturally the first to 

 be described ; and although some daring Mel- 

 tonians may pronounce it as somewhat slow, 

 still it requires very skilful management to ac- 

 complish it well. In a little treatise, entitled 

 Graceful Eiding ; a Foclcet Manual for 



Equestrians, by .Mr. Waite, a riding-master, 

 wo have tho movements whicli occur in tho 

 standing-leap, very clearly and briefly de- 

 scribed. "Let the rider," Hays this professor, 

 " take up his horse at an animating pace ; halt 

 him with a tight hand upon hia haunches; 

 when rising at the leap, the rider should only 

 just feel the reins, so as to prepare for slacken- 

 ing them when ho springs forward, yielding 

 them without reserve, as at the time tho horso 

 must bo left quite at liberty. As tho horse's 

 hind feet come to the ground, the rider must 

 again collect him, resume his usual position, 

 and move on at the same pace, and his body 

 must be inclined forward as the horso rises, 

 and backwards as he alights." 



In the flying-leap the horse must not be 

 hurried, " but taken up at a brisk pace, with a 

 light and steady hand, keeping his head per- 

 fectly steady and straight to the bar or fence. 

 This position is the same as in the standing- 

 leap ; and the aids required are the same as 

 for making a horso canter. If held too tight 

 in the act of leaping, the horse is likely to 

 overstrain himself and fall. If hurried at a 

 leap, it may cause hini to miss his distance, 

 and spring too soon or too late ; therefore his 

 pace must be regulated, so that he may take 

 ins spring distant enough, and proportionate 

 to its height, so that he may clear it. When 

 Hearing the leap, the rider must sit perfectly 

 square, erect, pliant and easy in the act of 

 .leaping: on arriving at the opposite side of 

 the leap, throw the body well back, and again 

 have the horse well in hand." 



AVe have spoken of the Irish horses as being 

 excellent leapers ; and in what is called the 

 doithh leap, or luck jump, their vast stretch is 

 exemplified to an extraordinary extent. It is 

 observed by Mr. Apperley, in vol. xi. of the 

 Encijclopcsdia Britannica, the power which 

 some horses have of giving an additional im- 

 Detus to their flight after they have left the 

 ground in a leap. "After all," says he, "tho 

 most extraordinary fact relating to the leapiug 

 of horses, is the power they have of extending 

 themselves, by a second spring as it were, 

 when, on being suspended in tlie air, they per- 

 ceive something on tho further side of a fence 

 for which they were not prepared. That they 

 occasionally do this under good horsemen, all 

 qood horsemen of experience can vouch lor; 



153 



