268 JUMPING. 



leg to go forward ; and, even with a short " run," will 

 get into his stride in a moment from the walk or halt, 

 so that he may acquire sufficient speed to clear, if neces- 

 sary, a ditch or guard rail on the other side. I need 

 hardly say that the man who schools a horse should 

 have sufficiently good hands to avoid hurting the animal's 

 mouth, especially when landing over a jump. 



The gregarious instinct of the horse, which prompts him 

 to follow his leader instead of taking an independent 

 ** line," should be combated by the breaker of the hunter ; 

 for unless a horse will go in the direction he is put, he will 

 be neither safe nor reliable. The horse which will jump 

 only when hounds are running, is just the kind of brute to 

 leave one " pounded " in front of some small fence in the 

 event of one becoming separated by chance from the field ; 

 to slay one by swerving off to take some seemingly easy, 

 but dangerous, spot ; or to kill one's neighbour by jumping 

 on or cannoning against him. We all know that if a horse 

 will leap in " cold blood," he will fence in hot blood ; but the 

 converse to this in no way holds good. Therefore, I say, teach 

 the horse which one wishes to make into a hunter, to jump 

 faultlessly by himself, and to take whatever line of country 

 his rider puts him to, before bringing him into the field. 



For a country of stone walls, posts and rails, or double 

 banks, a hunter should be taught to check his speed and 

 collect himself far more than he would require to do in a 

 country of hedges and ditches, like Leicestershire for 

 instance. 



The preliminary breaking of the hunter will take far less 

 time than experience in the hunting field, without plenty 



