114 ASK LITTLE AND TAKE NO LESS. 



valuable horse. The horse must be kept up to the belief that he 

 has no power to resist your will, but must go where you steadily 

 and resolutely direct him. 



232. — " In teaching a horse to jump, lounging him over 

 diiferent things does some good, but will never make a hunter. 

 He must be actually ridden by some one with good hands, and 

 with courage and determination enough to make him do whatever 

 he asks him to do in the jumping line. I find that it saves 

 much time and trouble in the end to insist upon a horse doing 

 whatever you ask him to do, however severe the first fight may 

 be. This is especially the case in jumping lessons. 



233. — " Begin with something simple and easy, and insist 

 upon its being done. With a youug horse, or an unknown one, 

 begin with something that you can be sure to get them over, 

 such as a rail laid on the ground, in a gateway, or a very low 

 furze hedge, and if they stop, which you should try to prevent, 

 don't turn them round, but force them to go over it, or through 

 it somehow. 



234. — " Punish a horse severely for baulking at his fences, 

 but if you want to make him a good pleasant jumper punish him 

 for nothing else. If he strikes his fences, and is careless, keep 

 jumping him at something very stifi" or prickly, and he will 

 hurt himself quite enough, and by praising and making a lot of 

 him whenever he gets over, however clumsy the style may be, 

 he will soon improve. I never on any account punish a horse 

 in the act of jumping. They naturally dislike jumping and are 

 afraid of it, and you want to do all you can to encourage them. 

 Pet and pat them after every successful attempt. 



235. — " To show how completely horses can be made to 

 believe that they must go wherever you steadily direct them, I 

 may say that during the whole of last season's hunting, my 

 horse " Sulky" (229), never once refused anything I put him at, 

 and twice in one run across Mr. Hunt's field, actually dived 

 into and through a furze hedge ten feet high without being 

 touched with the spurs. When I was regularly riding old 

 *' Barry," he never thought of stopping at anything I asked him 

 to try, nor would he do so with anyone else that was not afraid 



