JUMPING 123 



left knee against the leaping head. By keeping her 

 leather at the proper length, her knee will always be 

 sufficiently bent, or " pointed," to absorb much of the 

 jar of the jump. 



Of equal importance to the actual business of jump- 

 ing is the matter of properly placing the animal at 

 his fences. One invariable rule, which cannot be too 

 strongly emphasized, is that a horse should always 

 be straight at his jumps. If he is taken into the 

 wings, or up to the fence sidewise, he is bound to 

 bungle it, and, should he hit the jump, will have a 

 nasty fall on top of his rider. Beginners are very apt 

 to forget this, and I have even seen men who have 

 hunted for years, and who ought to know better, start 

 a horse diagonally at his jumps and wonder why the 

 horse, having more intelligence than his rider, refused, 

 or, being on a par of stupidity with his rider, attempted 

 the thing and bungled it. I remember when I first 

 started to hunt I took one of my numerable falls in 

 just this fashion. It was my first day out with the 

 Meadow Brook hounds, and we approached a typical 

 big Long Island "in and out." As hounds were not 

 running, one of the recognized " bruisers" of the field 

 stopped to pull down a top rail. I was riding an old 

 hunter who was extremely clever and a remarkable 

 jumper, but whom I credited with being absolutely 

 invincible, as up to that time I had only hunted her 

 over a country in which the jumps had all been child's 

 play to her. Consequently, I mentally "pooh poohed" 

 the idea of any fence stopping her, and on this par- 

 ticular incident, selecting a panel, I gaily sailed down 

 at the "in and out." We did the "in" neatly enough, 

 but once in, I realized, too late, that to get out on the 

 other side was no easy matter, as the lane was exceed- 



