248 Cross Country with Horse and Hound 



tion, every horse I see jumping, that is to say, ride each 

 one, mentally, just as if I were on his back. After an hour 

 of this sort of riding I am quite fatigued. I believe that 

 it is due to the fact that I have not actually had a horse 

 under me from whom to receive the necessary compen- 

 sation. 



May it not be this very power we have been discussing, 

 more than " hands," that makes a horse stop pulling as soon 

 as a person has been up long enough to obtain the animal's 

 consent to be governed ? This is not, of course, to say that 

 a man who has a bad seat and is all the time nagging at 

 his horse's mouth can by the mere exercise of his will 

 make his horse cease pulling. We hear everywhere 

 " hands " called a gift, truly enough ; but may good hands 

 not owe their existence more to a gift of mind power than 

 to mere skill in handling ? May it not be owing to this 

 mind-power control over animals that many lady riders 

 have over their mounts what, in the absence of horseman- 

 ship, we call a " charmed life " in the saddle ? 



We hear everywhere among hunting men a great deal 

 about lifting one's horse at a jump, the expression, which 

 is a common one, conveying the idea that this is done by 

 an actual pull at the bit. Never was a more absurd notion 

 entertained. One might as well say a man could climb a 

 pole and pull the pole up after him. If the phrase, how- 

 ever, means that by the mind power of control a man can 

 assist a horse, I do not dispute it, for it seems to me that, 

 from the very use of the expression so frequently, riders are 

 conscious of rendering great assistance to a horse at the 

 moment of going over a fence. It is by a lift, to be sure, 



