JUMPING. 113 



will jump. Nor should he ever be practised at any sort of sham 

 fence, that will give way to liis legs, or he will soon learn to 

 expect every fence to do so, and as a consequence turn occa- 

 sional somersaults with his rider. The remarkable " cleverness" 

 of some horses in the perfect command of their legs, even at the 

 end of an exhausting run, or the " fifth leg " always at hand 

 when wanted, may be bred l)ufc can never be taught by any 

 amount of education. 



228. — Jumping with a man on his back is a severe strain on 

 any horse, and should not be attempted until the horse is at least 

 four years old, but a younger horse or a pony, may be taught to 

 jump with a skilfully managed lounging line, or well fenced 

 drive, and there is perhaps no better way to teach any horse his 

 first lessons in jumping. Whatever method is adopted l)egin 

 low enough. Ask your horse to do nothing more than he can 

 do very easily, but whatever you ask him to do must be done. 

 Horses do not like jumping, and can only be kept up to it by 

 the well sustained delusion that they must go where a resolute 

 rider determines to take them. Every opportunity should be 

 taken to show them that they must clear their fences well, or 

 suffer from touching them ; let them take the full consequence 

 of any slovenly management of their legs. 



220. — We have received the following letter on this subject 

 from the huntsman of the Ashburton Hunt Club, whose horses 

 always become celebrated, both for the jumps they take in his 

 hands, and for what they will do in other hands, after he has 

 trained them. The horse " Sulky " has been mentioned in another 

 part of this work, " Barry " is a horse on which he won the 

 County Steeple Chase in 1878, as he did on '' Pirate" in 1882. 

 He says — 



2o0. — " My success in training hunters, as well as other 

 horses, has been gained by putting into practice the rules and 

 instructions received from you, so that almost anything I could 

 tell you would be stale news. 



231. — "Nothing makes horses so good, indeed nothing else 

 will make a good hunter, but consistently keeping up the delusion 

 that you always told us was so necessary to make an obedient 



H 



