TRAINING 93 



so limited as to insure their not getting into bad 

 habits. Jumping is so much a question of obedience 

 to the rider, and of answering inmiediately to his 

 wishes, that the sooner we begin riding at our 

 fences the better. 



It is very generally believed that horses should 

 not be jumped either much or often. We are told 

 that horses soon sicken of it, and that much 

 jumping ruins their legs. 



I will take each contention separately. I wish to 

 lay great emphasis on the first point. Horses do not 

 tire of jumping, provided they are properly treated 

 (and even then they are most astonishingly long- 

 suffering). Horses refuse because they have not 

 been jumped enough, not because they have been 

 jumped too often. Out hunting, I ask, which 

 fence is it a horse most often refuses ? His first, 

 or his last? After a long day's hunt, after your 

 fortieth fence, do you expect him to refuse his 

 forty-first because he has got tired ? If the answer 

 is that in the one case he has the joy of the hunt 

 in his veins, and in the other merely an artificial 

 obstacle, I can only reply : Try and see. I can 

 only assure my readers that the rider will tire long 

 before the horse. I have never reached the stage 

 myself, and I am quite confident that I never 

 shall succeed in sickening my horse before I myself 

 am completely exhausted. 



As to affecting their legs or feet, I can only 

 say that this is not the result from experience. 

 The time sinews are sprained is when a horse is 

 exhausted. 



