CHAPTER VIII 

 JUMPING 



'No game was ever yet worth a rap 

 For a rational man to play, 



Into which no accident, no mishap 

 Could possibly find a way." 



— Gordon. 



tc 



Plus tu sauras, moins tu diras, mieux tu ensei- 

 gneras." ("The more you know, the less you will say, 

 the better you will teach"), is a saying that applies 

 with peculiar force to any instruction on jumping. 

 For when all is said and done there is little that can 

 be suggested that will be of much assistance to the rider. 



To approach the jump at a suitable pace, to steady 

 one's mount well into the jumps, lean forward and 

 give him his head as he takes off, are almost the only 

 words of advice that are worth much, and even these 

 are far easier said than done. Perhaps the most im- 

 portant thing of all is to remember that a horse must 

 have absolute freedom of the head and neck if he is 

 to jump well. The manner in which a horse in his 

 natural state, or on the "long reins," extends his neck 

 as he takes off, flexes it when he jumps, and again 

 extends it on landing, is perhaps best demonstrated 

 by the moving-pictures of horse-jumping, taken by 

 the ultra-rapid camera, in which every move of the 

 animal is so reduced in speed that one can easily study 

 it. Seeing such pictures or watching a horse jump in 

 a corral is a liberal education in itself. 



Interfering with the motion of a horse's head and 

 neck, even in the slightest degree, would have the same 



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