8 HINTS ON HORSEMANSHIP 



clean as a whistle, and did not even make a " peck " 

 on landing. But the jump had been too good for 

 the jockey, and he had been completely jumped off. 



Now, if that jockey had kno"v\Ti how to adjust 

 his body correctly, and had understood and studied 

 the theories and practice of balance, such a 

 catastrophe could not have occurred. 



From the pictures that we see in the papers 

 almost daily during the steeple chasing season, it 

 is perfectly clear that most of our present-day 

 riders get themselves into thoroughly wrong 

 positions. Frequently they are grotesque, but so 

 common are they that the public look upon them 

 as correct. Most of our o^vners and trainers accept 

 those positions as being inseparable from the exi- 

 gencies of racing over fences, and the riders are 

 never checked, nor are their faults explained to 

 them, because in the great majority of cases 

 neither o^\^lers nor trainers study the subject 

 theoretically. And so we go on, riding more than 

 any other nation, proud of our horses, our riders 

 and our sport, but, on that very account, make 

 no effort to improve. Those foreigners with, fewer 

 advantages, who realize that it is necessary for 

 them to make up by study what they lack 

 in opportunity, can now " show us the way," 

 and it is high time that the riding public of Great 

 Britain should grasp this sad fact, and by copying 

 their methods, and taking advantage of their 

 long study in the arts of horsemanship, should 

 see that the home of riding still remains in our 

 country, and that we should still be looked up to 



