Learning to Leap. 299 



LEAPING. 



Every one, man, woman, or child, who learns to ride should learn to leap, whether in- 

 tending to hunt or not ; because no one can be said to have a secure seat who has not practised 

 the balance required when a horse bounds in the air from high spirits, or when called upon to 

 pass over some unexpected obstacle in a country ride — a newly- made ditch, or a sheep-hurdle 

 set up to stop a gap. 



When a horse leaps, he throws the untaught or unprepared rider forward. The object of 

 instruction and practice are to teach and accustom the rider to resist, or rather to neutralise, by 

 his position in the saddle, the impetus forward created by the horse's bound. 



With this object in view the j^oung horseman must sit firmly in the middle of the saddle, 

 with the snaffle reins held in both hands, and both hands held low over the horse's withers, and 

 look straight between his horse's ears. As the horse approaches the leap, he should bend his 

 body back from the hips upwards over the cantle of the saddle, while keeping his "seat" firmly 

 in its place by the grip of his legs and thighs ; and, as a great horseman used to express it, 

 in less anatomical language, "curling his sitting-bones (rear) under him." The degree of leaning 

 back depends on the extent of the leap and the action of the horse ; at a great down jump, 

 the best horsemen almost touch the horse's croup. Some make the mistake of sitting back 

 oil the saddle, and thus exposing themselves to the action of the loin-muscles ; whereas it is not 

 their seat, but their shoulders, that should flexibly fall back, and return to the upright position 

 when the horse is landed. 



According to military instructions, " the body is to be inclined forward as the horse rises, 

 and backwards as he aliglits ;'' but that is a feat which only a long-practised horseman can 

 accurately perform. The chances are that the pupil who attempts it, if he does not get a black 

 eye or bruised nose from the horse's neck, will find himself jumped out of the saddle from not 

 having timed his change to the backward motion accurately. 



The art of leaping with an easy-leaping horse is easily acquired if the pupil is properly 

 taught. But some horses, from their powerful hind-quarter action, are very difficult to sit ; 

 and some men who have been hunting and riding hard all their lives present examples of 

 every kind of habit that ought to be avoided — notably the foolish practice of throwing up the 

 right hand, instead of keeping it almost level with the pommel, parallel with the left hand ; and 

 the awkward practice of pushing the legs straightforward like crutches over the horse's shoulders, 

 instead of keeping them close to his sides, with the knees fairly bent. 



More will be said on this subject in the " Hunting " chapters. 



The mode of learning to leap is to commence on a perfectly quiet, free-and-easy leaper — 

 one that in clearing a three-foot bar makes scarcely more e.xcrtion than in dashing into a gallop 

 and with a slight obstacle to cover. If a leaping-bar is not at hand, the trunk of a tree is 

 still better. 



In the open country little ditches present as useful practice as bars or hurdles. After two 

 or three preliminary lessons, the pupil will do well to follow a good horseman over easy places, 

 such as gaps in hedges, with ditches on the taking off side. The pupil should on no account 

 wear spurs in the preliminary stages of instruction. 



In one of the elder Herring's hunting pictures, in which the hounds are in full cry, an 

 odd-looking man, in a tall hat, is craning forward just as his brown horse is in the air clearing 

 a solid oak fence with a brook on the far side. 



Several masters of fo.x-hounds in flying counties, after examining this picture, have made 



