112 Cross Country with Horse and Hound 



up as his fore feet land. These motions of the head and 

 neck must assist wonderfully in making the jumps, for they 

 show, for one thing, that the horse uses this throw of the 

 head and neck to assist him in preserving his balance. The 

 necessity of giving a horse his head when he is jumping is 

 obvious, and to be able to do this requires two things : 

 first, a perfect seat, and second, a rider that sits his horse 

 by balance. If the rider cannot take a fence with his 

 horse without steadying the weight of his body against the 

 horse's mouth, he may know by this sign that he comes 

 short of the requirements. 



As a horse, when brought to his jump in a deliberate way, 

 begins to lift his fore legs from the ground, all the rider 

 has to do is to lean well forward and drop his hands until 

 the reins are slack,* then lean back on the decline of the 

 jump and take his horse well in hand as he strides away on 

 the level. The great trouble with many of us is that we 

 cannot let the reins alone, having the absurd idea that in 

 some way we must assist our mount to rise or to land. The 

 practice of catching hold of a horse's head by a pull on the 

 reins as he begins to rise at a jump, with the idea of lifting 

 him, is one of the most absurd notions that ever entered the 

 mind of a cross-country rider. It is a practice that is alto- 

 gether too common. Whyte-Melville, to quote again his 

 valuable work "Riding Recollections," tells of a celebrated 

 Yorkshireman who used to say : " Every horse is a hunter 

 if you don't throw him down [at his jumps] with the bridle." 



I do not mean to say that every one who rides by balance 

 can ride a horse through a stiff run in a rough timber 



* See page 96. 



