68 HINTS ON HORSEMANSHIP 



to me once when I was asked to give an exhibition 

 jump. I was riding my mare Ozone, who is usually- 

 much too free and bold at her fences. Just as I 

 thought she was going to jump, her eye caught 

 some object which raised her suspicions, and she 

 stopped dead. As the fence was a fairly high one, 

 I had ridden her fairly fast at it, and, of course, 

 threw my body well forward in anticipation of her 

 " kick off." The result was I found myself on 

 the flat of my back, to the great amusement of 

 the onlookers, who, unfortunately, happened to be 

 many. 



But occasions such as these are happily of rare 

 occurrence, if one is riding well-schooled horses. 

 It is a sign of bad training for horses to refuse, and 

 it should be very much less common than it is. 

 Generally speaking, a horse gives plenty of warning 

 of his disinclination to jump, and then the catas- 

 trophe can be easily avoided. I am only now 

 referring to the considerable difficulty there is in 

 sticking on when it comes quite unexpectedly. 

 This is the only occasion when the " body back '* 

 seat would come in usefully. But as it would only 

 assist when encountering the improbable and the 

 occurrence is very rare, w^e needn't worry our 

 heads much about it. 



It is usually supposed that it takes many years 

 to make a man into a horseman. But I do not 

 think this is really the case. If a young man is 

 trained on the right lines, and has the necessary 

 qualifications in both mind and body, I believe 

 that he can be made into a quite good horseman 



