122 HORSEMANSHIP FOR WOMEN. 



over it, be patient though firm, and when he has finally 

 done so, pat and praise him ; but if he has been bred in 

 this country, and is used to bar places, he will probably 

 give no trouble at this stage of his education. Now 

 mount him and repeat the operation ; then, having the 

 bar raised a few inches, do so again, and continue doing 

 so, alwa} 7 s at a walk, until it is so high that he can no 

 longer step over it. American horses are famous for 

 their excellent tempers; nevertheless, at this point, un- 

 less you manage with care and with a judicious refer- 

 ence to equine peculiarities of mind and temper, you 

 may meet with a refusal to proceed. In this event you 

 must not use force or severity, or you may disgust the 

 horse, perhaps forever, with the very exercise you wish 

 him to learn to enjoy, but must content yourself with 

 preventing him from sheering off and keeping him 

 facing his task till, sooner or later, he will go over. 

 Now praise him and make much of him, and ask no 

 more jumping till the next lesson. It is not a good 

 plan to put the bar up in an open place, for the horse 

 will think it nonsense, and unless he is unusually docile 

 will resent what will seem to him to be an imposition 

 in forcing him to jump oyer it when he could easily go 

 around it. A bar place or gate-way is much better, as 

 it cannot be "flanked," and he will not wonder at being 

 asked to go through it, but he should never be ridden 

 backward and forward over the bar, nor allowed to see 

 it raised, but should be brought around to it by a circuit 



