398 RACE RIDING. 



him any onward impulse. As the legs of the rider are the 

 only other parts which connect him to the horse, the " lift " 

 if there be one must proceed from them, and may be the 

 result of the weight being, more or less, taken off the horse's 

 back at each instant, as his hind feet make their stroke. 

 Colonel Greenwood, in his excellent book, Hints on Horse- 

 mansJiip, considers that such mechanical assistance can be 

 given. 



A man requires a good deal of practice to finish well ; but, 

 if he does it badly, he is certain to impede the horse's 

 movements by rolling about in the saddle. Hence, if he be not 

 expert in the art, he had better sit still. He should catch a 

 good hold of his horse's head, and should assume the position 

 which he finds to be the easiest one for the horse and for 

 himself. As the action of finishing is very fatiguing to the 

 jockey, he does not, as a rule, " sit down " before he comes to 

 the distance post. 



TACTICS OF FINISHING. 



At a finish it is generally best to be on the side farthest 

 away from the judge. When two horses are coming up the 

 straight, on perfectly even terms, the farthest-off one will, 

 of necessity, appear to the spectator to be ahead of the other. 

 It is, therefore, very difficult for the judge, in a close finish 

 to efface entirely from his mind an impression of, say, ten 

 or twelve seconds' duration. It has happened that when the 

 .actual winner has finished close under the judge's box, that 

 he was not even placed by that official. If the jockey cannot 

 use his whip in his left hand, he might keep on the whip hand 

 of his most dangerous opponent, who might, if he was on his 

 near side, close in, either intentionally or by his horse 

 swerving, and would thus prevent him from using the whip 

 with the right hand. If the horse has a tendency to swerve 



