444 The Book of the Horse. 



Very fine steeplechasers say that they always fix with their eye the place from which they 

 mean their horses to take off. I confess that, although after I learned the importance of the 

 rule I always tried to collect my horse however fast he was going, I was obliged to leave 

 the choice of the exact fulcrum to my hunter's honour. It is quite plain that if you have to 

 cover fifteen feet, and your horse rises ten feet too soon, he will then have to cover twenty-five 

 feet. Jem Hill, a late celebrated huntsman of the Heythrop Hounds, used to gallop across 

 fields fenced in with stone walls at full gallop, and when he came very near the wall, pull his 

 horse all together, and hop over four or five feet with unerring certainty. But many who tried 

 to imitate him, with less correct hands, came to grief. 



For a bold rider there is no fence so safe as a stone wall, because the landing is certain ; 

 for timid riders none looks so formidable. The horrid trick of rushing through fences 

 without rising — I have seen a horse dash through a gate — can only be cured by having the 

 animal ridden constantly at timber, not too high, that will not break. But this is not the 

 proper duty of any gentleman, unless he be perfectly idle, and unencumbered with duties of 

 any kind. 



If a horse gets out of hand, and feels that he is going faster than you desire, he is very 

 likely to refuse, although a perfect performer in the hands of a stronger horseman. I have 

 repeatedly found that a horse which bolted and refused with the rider in a plain Pelham 

 bridle, when held and collected in a sufficiently powerful double bridle, never attempted to 

 swerve, although I held the curb loose as I came up to the fences, and only made him feel 

 it when racing across big fields. 



The habit of swerving, and perhaps jumping the wrong place, or absolutely refusing, is 

 " frequently created by the Jiatcfttl practice of Jiolding the reins hi one hand as the horse is rising 

 at his fence, and throiving np the other for the pnrposc of balancing tlie body. This necessarily 

 inclines the horse to swerve to the left, and allows him to run into the fence just as he pleases; 

 indeed, swerving, refusing, not rising, and rushing, are all engendered by this most ungainly 

 practice. Until men learn that horses have two sides to their mouths — require equal pressure 

 to keep them straight, and an unequal pressure to make them turn — there will always bo 

 refusers and rushers." * 



Another great practical authority, Dick Christian,! who was premier horse and hunter 

 breaker for the " Leicestershire swells " in the first quarter of this century, whose sayings were 

 Boswellised by " The Druid," has perhaps condensed in his " Lectures " nearly all the instruc- 

 tions that can be imparted in mere words. " As a steeplechaser," said Dick, " I always 

 steadied my horse on his hind legs twenty yards from his fence, and I was always over and 

 away again before the rushers. A man should get his horse collected. The front legs of a 

 hunter should be higher than his hind ones when he comes down, but he must not buck 

 [that is, jump from all four legs at once, like a deer.] Lots of young riders force their horses 

 at fences too much ; they'd never get hurt if they'd collect their horses. 



" If you don't feel your horse's mouth you can tell nothing about him. If you hold him 



• "The Sportsman's Guide," by Digby Collins. 



t Dick Christian, on Mr. Coke's mare Marigold, charged a thick cut hedge, 4 feet 6 inches high, the mare alighting on a bank 

 about a yard wide, witli all her four feet togetlrer. " Wlien I was in the air I saw my danger, so pulled as slie touched the bank, 

 and shot her legs right under her." Immediately below this bank was a steep declivity into an old stone quarry. The mare 

 bounded to the bottom of the quarry in three springs, and alighted safely on her legs. Tlie first leap over tlie hedge in a straiglit 

 line — the height of the hedge not included — was 18 feet 8 inches; second le.ip, 10 feet 6 inches; third, 10 feet; fourth, 14 feet 

 9 inches — total, 53 feet 11 inches. — ^' Post and Paddock." 



