36 THE BRIDLE BITS. 



and tlie unmistakable exercise of liis hand and knees. 

 Unless it is a steamboat, a barn or a locomotive, he 

 knows he has got to take it flying ; and if we can judge 

 from experience, equestrian feats can be performed under 

 such influence with greater safety than by sober careful- 

 ness, for confidence is imparted to the horse. He knows 

 from experience that there is no back out possible, and 

 that he can't do his work by halves, neck or nothing 

 being the rule on that day. A few inevitable mistakes 

 and falls over, in the early training, make a horse careful 

 in after years, and ensure a clean bound if well ridden, 

 to avoid a repetition of some unfortunate experience on a 

 similnr occasion. It is better to make a bad leap than to 

 spoil the horse by going back to make another charge at 

 it. If he refuses, which is justifiable on some accounts, 

 it may be from some misconception on his j^art of his 

 rider's intentions — from the slack of the reins or relaxa- 

 tion of the knees — that the rider changed his mind, or he 

 may have found that his stride in approaching the fence 

 at a canter would take him either too far from or too 

 near the fence, and consequently refused, fearing a certain 

 fall on or fall over. But this is the rider's lookout, as he 

 should be master of the situation. His rider, however, 

 if a horseman, knows the cause, and taking him to it 

 again, squarely, goes over it flying. In such possible 

 complications in the heat and excitement of the moment, 

 when the hounds are in full cry, the snaffle, or the Pel- 

 ham, used on the snaffle, are the only riding bits proj^er 

 to use on those occasions. 



HORSE-LEAP CHURCH. 



In County West Meatb, Ireland, there is a church 

 near Kilbeggan called '' Horse-leap Church." It takes its 

 name from a great leap that was made by a horse while 

 out hunting with the bounds, over a haurene (narrow 

 road) on either side of which there is a stone wall. The 



