74 HINTS ON HORSEMANSHIP 



much more difficulty than they do). It is merely 

 a matter of leg conformation, and is of little 

 importance, because directly the rider takes his 

 weight off the saddle and places it upon the 

 stirrup irons, the whole difficulty fades away. 

 The only differences in conformation that matter 

 are bandy legs and knock knees. A bandy-legged 

 man clings to the horse's sides with greater facility, 

 and generally speaking, is able to keep his toes 

 in without effort. The knock-kneed man has 

 difficulty in getting his toes in; he is nearly 

 always the one who has his toes out. But when 

 sitting in the saddle at a stand or when walk- 

 ing casually, it is the inclination of every one 

 to have his knees away from it, and it doesn't 

 matter in the least, because in that position he 

 is riding at ease, and the easier he is (without 

 lolling) when so doing, the better for him and 

 the horse. 



When jumping a fence he should use as little 

 muscular effort as possible. Balance should be our 

 first thought. A tight grip on the horse just as he is 

 about to spring has the inclination to restrain the 

 freedom of his shoulder muscles. There is only one 

 man that I have ever seen who carried this point 

 to extremes. In the years 1913-14 he rode at 

 Olympia, and caused much amusement to the on- 

 lookers. Every time the horse jumped, instead of 

 increasing his hold on the saddle, he relaxed it; 

 in fact, he opened out his legs instead of closing 

 them. The result was he was thrown up into the 

 air quite two feet and sometimes more away from 



