268 THE COMPLETE HORSEMAN 



that they have made of Horsemanship a science, 

 and that they can show a reason for everything 

 they do in the school. I have heard it said 

 that all horses broken in the school have hard 

 mouths and that all men taught in the school 

 have heavy hands. Nothing can be more er- 

 roneous. I have ridden horses that have been 

 broken in the ' schools ' and the only difficulty 

 I experienced with their mouths was that I some- 

 times inadvertently gave them a sign, which 

 made them do what I did not anticipate — 

 ' rein back ' for example. But the school horses 

 I rode had no pull about them. As for the 

 men having heavy hands, that is absolute non- 

 sense. The finest horseman — or one of the 

 finest I ever knew, w^as taught in the school, 

 and I believe he occasionally had a few lessons 

 just to refresh his memory. He was a brilliant 

 man to hounds and a fine cross-countiy jockey, 

 one of the best amateurs of his day. He was 

 riding a four-year-old one day and had a very 

 narrow escape of a heavy fall. It was his 

 beautiful handling that saved the situation. 

 As we were riding home I remarked what a 

 well-trained horse he was riding and he said 

 it really was not, that it was very raw and that 

 was only the second or third time it had seen 

 hounds. He added that he had ridden it a few 

 times in the school and had lightened its forehand 

 well before he jumped and to that he attributed 

 the scramble instead of a fall. We talked 

 ' school ' all the way home and from that day I 



