376 RACE RIDING. 



experienced Newmarket trainer, who, when the owner asked 

 him to whom he should give a mount in a race for a good 

 stake : " Oh, sir, put up Archer. He packs himself up so, 

 that I believe he rides seven pounds lighter than his real 

 weight." The owner did, and Archer won. Up to the 

 arrival of Sloan, all our modern jockeys rode with their stirrup 

 leathers at the usual length. To obtain full benefit from this 

 seat in bringing the weight forward, the jockey has to shorten 

 his stirrups, so that his knees will be about on a level with 

 the withers of his mount (Fig. 243), by doing which he will 

 necessarily deprive himself of the valuable assistance he 

 can obtain from his legs in guiding, collecting and stimulating 

 his horse, as I have tried to explain in Chapters X. and XL 

 The manner in which many of the crouching jockeys bump up 

 and down in their saddles is a travesty of good horseman- 

 ship. The action of bending forward and lowering the head 

 which is greatly practised by jockeys, naturally decreases the 

 resistance of the body to the wind, which is an important 

 factor in race riding except when there is a strong wind on 

 the back of the horseman. We may gain a fair idea of the 

 resistance of the air, by putting our head out of a railway 

 train which is going, say, 36 miles an hour, which would be 

 about equal to the speed at which a fairly good racehorse could 

 cover a mile. A capable jockey will be able to tell by the 

 way his horse is going, how he ought to distribute his weight, 

 and prevent his body from offering an undue impediment 

 to the wind. The saddle cannot be brought much more 

 forward than its ordinary position. 



HANDLING THE REINS. 



The reins should be held crossed (as described in Chapter 

 VI.) in both hands, and the whip should be kept, lash down, 

 in the right or left hand, as the case may require. ' Almost 

 all jockeys put a knot (Fig. 244) a few inches from the end of 



