XXIII 



REFUSERS 



" Yet I must tell you, the rarest Leaping Horse that ever I saw, or 

 Rid, went not at all upon the Curb, but only upon the Barrs of his 

 Mouth, which I do not commend ; but it is better to have him Leap 

 so, being so rare a horse, than to be so Over-Curious as not to have 

 him Leap at all, because he went not upon the Curb." 



Nev^^castle. 



A FTER reading the above quotation the reader 

 will perhaps agree with me that the Duke 

 either did very little jumping, or was extraordinarily 

 lucky in only finding one horse that objected to leap- 

 ing on the curb ; there is no surer way of manufac- 

 turing a refuser if the animal's mouth and chin are 

 not past all feeling. 



Horses refuse for various reasons, and it is useless 

 to attempt to cure them of the habit until we have 

 ascertained the cause. A well-known writer has 

 said that it takes two years to make a horse and 

 about half-an-hour to spoil him, and we may safely 

 go this far with him : that a good jumper can be 



ruined in a very short time, and that the trouble and 



285 



