108 THE BARB AND THE BEIDLE. 



tlie same action as a finished hunter ; and, therefore, in one sense 1 

 endorse the dictum once expressed to me by an Irish farmer when 

 I asked his opinion as to the natiu-al paces of a horse. His reply- 

 was, " Sure some of 'em goes no way natural, but just the way you 

 don't want thim to go ; and there's some of tliim that nothing's so 

 natural to as to ate a lot of good oats a man never sees the 

 price of again. Thim's bad ones. But if you're spakmg of a 

 good maning, rale Irish horse, the most natural pace he has is to 

 jump well." I quite agree, bar the word pace, that jmnping to 

 a horse is as natural as any other instinctive action. The weight, 

 however, to be carried, and the mode in which that weight is 

 distributed at the critical moment, makes a material difference to 

 both horse and rider. Therefore, the early leaping lessons should 

 be confined to causing the pupil to do as little as possible to impede 

 the action of the horse, while she preserves her due balance. Like 

 the breaking of a young colt in the case of a pupil learning to ride 

 over a fence, if you ask too much at once or confuse the learner, 

 you obtain nothing but discomfitiu-e. 



As regards this portion of the course of equitation, it is specially 

 necessary to bear in mind the old French maxim, Cest ne pas le 

 premiere pas qui coute. At the same time it is quite possible, if 

 the first step is injudiciously taken, to spoil the whole of your 

 previous work. Special care should be taken that the horse does 

 not take off too soon ; and if, from any unevenness of the rider's 

 hands or legs, he attempts this, the instructor shoald be quickly at 

 his head again, and compel him to do his work coolly and collectedly. 

 " The standing leap," as this is technically called, is considerably 

 more difficult as regards catching the precise moment at which to 

 throw the weight of the body back than the " flying leap," because 

 in the standing leap the horse, being nearer to the obstacle, pitches 

 himself forward with a much rougher action, and does not land so 

 far on the other side of the fence ; whereas when he canters freely 

 at it, the difference in the shock to the rider is as great as that 

 €xperienced in the pitch of a boat in a short chopping sea, and the 

 boat's rise and fall in a long swell, the pace also causing the horse to 

 take more freely hold of the rider's hand. 



