'HANDS' AND OTHER MATTERS 145 



expect a horse to jump with all this crowd looking 

 on, and all these damned flowers ? " 



Those, however, who have taken pains to train 

 their horses, know that neither lights, nor crowds, 

 nor flowers, nor bands matter in the least. A horse 

 will do what he has been accustomed to do, put him 

 where you will. He must be able to see his fences 

 clearly, and as long as he can do that he will jump 

 both cleverly and well, provided he has been trained 

 beforehand. 



Remarks such as these are merely idle excuses 

 for failure, and our foreign guests, who must have 

 often overheard such statements, must have smiled 

 inwardly at hearing such expressions coming from 

 " the nation of horsemen." 



Do we not know that music does not adversely 

 affect horses ? If we don't, it was a fact known 

 to Job, the writer of one of the oldest books 

 extant. Have w^e not read that " He saith amongst 

 the trumpets, ha, ha " ? 



No, indeed. It is neither the music, nor the 

 lights, nor the crowd, nor the flowers that affect 

 him. But if he knows he is going to receive a 

 pretty fair dose of the whip directly he sets foot 

 in the arena, he very naturally puts up all the 

 protest of which he is capable. A horse cannot be 

 made as afraid " as the grasshopper," but he will 

 show a very righteous temper if he knows he is 

 in for an unjust hammering ; and is there any one 

 who would disagree with him were they in his 

 place ? 



