98 THE HORSE. 



It may, therefore, I think, be asserted with truth that the leap 

 is always made by the horse raising his fore quarter, and then sud- 

 denly and powerfully straightening his hind limbs; with the ground 

 as a fulcrum he propels his whole body forwards, and more or less 

 upwards, according to the height of the obstacle to be overcome. 

 In descending from the height to which the whole body has been 

 raised, there is a considerable variation in the relative periods of 

 time at which the fore and hind feet touch the ground. Some- 

 times the fore feet come down almost perpendicularly, and so far 

 before the hind that they have to bear the whole force of the 

 united momentum and gravity before the hind ones reach the 

 ground, and then a very slight mistake will occasion a fall. At 

 others they come down "all fours," that is, all the feet touching 

 the ground at the same moment, occasioning a great shock both to 

 horse and rider, and also a considerable loss of time in getting 

 away again into the stride. In the best style the horse touches 

 ground with his fore feet first, but being well extended they are 

 in a position to do no more than act as a spring to break the shock, 

 and the hind legs coming down immediately afterwards bear nearly 

 the whole force of momentum and gravity, which the fore legs are 

 unable to do safely, as I have already shown. 



Mr. Percivall is also in error as to the width of ground which 

 horses have been known to clear ; for he gives twenty-two feet as 

 an extraordinary effort in a steeplechase, whereas such a distance 

 is covered by any hurdle-jumper in ordinary practice, as I have 

 twenty times proved by careful measurement. I have myself seen 

 thirty-two and thirty-three feet cleared by steeplechasers, and it 

 is well known that Proceed and Chandler covered respectively 

 thirty-seven and thirty-nine feet in two separate steeplechases. So 

 a jump six feet in height is a very great performance, being eight 

 inches higher than the withers of a horse of sixteen hands. Some- 

 thing more than this has however been done, and I myself once 

 saw a horse clear a stone wall two or three inches above six feet 

 high, with the slightest possible touch of one stone with a hind 

 foot, but sufficient to dislodge it. Very few horses, however, can 

 be relied on to cover more than twenty-five feet in width, and four 

 feet, or four feet sii inches in height, and an average hunter will 

 not often do so much, especially if at all tired by a long run, or if 

 without the excitement attendant on the chase. 



