138 HACKS AND HUNTERS 



For the sake of others, as well as for your own, 

 don't change your mind once you have selected your 

 panel. Your horse will jump a big jump cleaner and 

 better if he is put at it straight, and your mind is 

 made up, than if he is waveringly and diagonally put 

 at a far smaller one. A horse that swerves should be 

 kept as much away from a crowd at a jump as pos- 

 sible, and the hot-headed horse should be allowed to 

 go well out in front, or on a line of his own, so that he 

 will get the impression that he is in the lead. On the 

 other hand, the sluggish animal or refuser should be 

 ridden so that he will be given a lead over his 

 jumps. 



As the true test of horsemanship in the hunting 

 field is to finish a run with the least possible exertion 

 to the horse, one should never lark over jumps to show 

 off, or jump a big panel when a little fence will do 

 as well. Out hunting you never know what efforts 

 may be required of your horse before the day is 

 over. 



If you have time to do much choosing of a fence 

 without interfering with your neighbor's line, you 

 should always select a big jump, with a good take off 

 and landing, to a smaller one with the reverse. As a 

 rule, a fairly thick top rail is safer than a thin round 

 one, which the horse may attempt to crash through, 

 and old rails are, of course, preferable to young sap- 

 lings, which, in common with sheep hurdles, are apt 

 to snap back if the horse hits them. 



As a general rule, the middle of a panel is its weak- 

 est spot, and most likely to break, but if there is any 

 suspicion of wire being present, or if the fence has 

 much wire on it, with only a binder at the top, the 

 safest thing to jump is the post. In Australia, where 



