46 MODERN HORSEMANSHIP. 



should be no effort made to indicate to the 

 horse when it should take off for the leap. If 

 the horse be a willing jumper the action of the 

 aids made to collect its forces will be all that is 

 required, and all that a rider should attempt. 



Until the rider can take a low leap in perfect 

 form, he should not try anything difficult. But 

 when practice and care have made him expert, 

 the bar may be raised two or three inches each 

 day until the limit I have fixed has been reached. 



A horse can leap very readily from a collected 

 trot — all the hls^h movements of the mancore are 

 made from the passage — and the changes of 

 motion from the trot to the leap and back again 

 to the trot give excellent practice to the rider. 

 The beginner will follow the same rules in riding 

 the horse over obstacles from the trot as from 

 the halt, and he will collect the horse, upon its 

 alighting, to continue in the pace with which It 

 approached the bar. 



When the horse takes a leap from the gallop 

 It is not necessary for the rider to lean for- 

 ward. As the horse springs from the ground, 

 he should lean back, more or less, depending 

 upon the drop from the highest point in the 

 leap, to resume the erect position as the hind- 

 legs of the horse reach the ground. Upon a 



