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fence without giving any indication that you expect 

 him to jump it. He will then come up to it quite 

 coolly, but most likely will not understand what you 

 want him to do; he will only realise in the last 

 stride or two that it is a question of jumping, and 

 the result will he either a refusal or a bad, scramb- 

 ling sort of jump. 



Both ways are bad, over-rousing and exciting 

 the worst of the two. A better way is this: just 

 feel his mouth, possibly bringing his head up an inch 

 or two, at the same time get a really strong clip on 

 him with your knees and let that knee pressure in- 

 crease as you near the fence. Then a slight, almost 

 invisible movement of the hands (always have both on 

 the reins), and a word of cheer, and your young one 

 will take off exactly right, sail over his fence, en- 

 joying it as much as you do. 



These first jumping lessons should be given in 

 a thick plain snaffle. That, in my opinion, is also 

 far the best bit for the first few days with the hounds; 

 after that a rider can consult his own individual 

 taste. Young horses can hardly be ridden too slowly 

 at their fences. So ridden, they jump off their 

 hocks and learn to measure their fences accurately. 

 I never hurried a young one even at water. Later, 

 when they have learnt their business, you can in- 

 crease the pace. With a smooth snaffle you lessen 

 the risk of a painful "job" in the mouth, which the 

 strongest-seated man may unintentionally deal to his 

 horse if he jumps in some unexpected way or pecks 

 heavily. There is no such fruitful source of re- 

 fusals as a nasty "job" on the jaws of a young horse, 

 or indeed of an old one. Each man of experience 

 has his own ideas about riding young horses to hounds. 

 Personally I always tried to do without a lead and 

 to get at the fences where nobody else was riding at 

 them. I never liked a lead, and hold that a young 

 horse learns more in jumping half a dozen fences on 

 his own than dozens of fences when following other 

 horses. If you follow a man in order to get the 

 benefit of a lead, you must keep fairly close to him 

 or somebody else may cut in. You are also bound to 

 see him safe into the next field before you set your 



