300 The Book of the Horse. 



the same remark: "If that hoise makes the sh'ghtest mistake on landing, with that seat the 

 rider must come over his head." This figure is said to have been a representation, but may 

 not have been a correct one, of Assheton Smith's seat, although that hard bruising rider was 

 celebrated for the number of his falls. 



In reference to this picture, a West of England squire, one of the hardest riders of his 

 day across the Vale of Aylesbury, told me that although he had ridden to hounds up and 

 down the hills of Exmoor from his childhood, he discovered when he first came to London and 

 observed the form of Middlesex steeplechase horsemen, who then made the hunters of Anderson, 

 Elmore, and Tilbury,* that he was all wrong, and from that time completely changed his style 

 of riding at big fences, and leaned well back over the cantle. 



The best example I ever saw of the advantage of lying back at a big leap was exhibited 

 by a son of George Darby, then a child about ten years old, riding a wonderful pony, which 

 (only lo hands high) would jump a hurdle in a riding-school four feet two inches high, that is, 

 ten inches higher than itself. 



The pony used to be led to the far end of the school, and when let go, galloped as hard 

 as he could up to the hurdle, and bounded over it like a deer. The boy sat from the first 

 leaning back over the cantle, but as the pony rose he seemed to be lying on his croup ; as he 

 landed he rose up as easily as one of those Chinese figures seated in a globe of porcelain. 



You will frequently see in the hunting-field men take hold of the cantle of the saddle to 

 hold on. This is nearly as bad as throwing up the right arm. But if a horse is very light- 

 mouthed, a pupil may be permitted to hold on by the breastplate in order to learn to lean back. 



Most men in leaping depend a little on the snaffle bridle ; you hear them say they " like 

 a horse to take hold of them." This being the case, it is most important that the reins should 

 be held long enough to give the horse power to fully extend his neck. Nothing is more common 

 than to see half-taught riders pulled out of the saddle at a leap by the extension of the horse's 

 neck ; and many a horse makes a n)istake or refusal from being thus held hard when his mouth 

 should be felt, not restrained. 



Above all, the pupil should bear in mind that his aim should be to keep his hands as still as 

 possible, and that he should not attempt to move the reins when the horse is rising or about 

 to rise at the leap. 



Practice over small natural fences, orj a well-trained horse or pony, is better for a boy or 

 young man th^n in a riding-school ; with ladies, for several reasons, the first leaping lessons 

 should be in a school. 



VICES. 



No sensible man or woman will keep a really vicious horse — that is, a horse that, not 

 from exuberance of spirits, but from malignant spite, seeks to unhorse his rider or injure his 

 groom. But the very best horses, well fed and not sufficiently exercised, will start, shy, plunge, 

 rear, or kick. 



A horse not absolutely vicious will seldom both rear and kick, but will follow one of those 

 two vices in preference. Horses that have a backward look and show much white of the eye 

 are almost invariably vicious. 



Horses generally give warning by setting back their ears, or by a curious wriggle of the 

 body, when they meditate some vicious trick. 



• Will. Bean, D. Seffevt, G. Rice, J. M:\sun, \V. .ind A. Macdonouc;h, &e. 



