TRAINING FOR RACING, POINT-TO-POINT 379 



also to make an Irish bank with a ditch on one side, and to 

 lead the young horses over it until they can change their 

 feet on it in the right way, which gives them command over 

 themselves, as a man learns when crossing stepping-stones. 

 They should also be led over little gripes and blind places, 

 which teaches them to look where they are going. They 

 should be perfect in these lessons before they are asked to 

 carry a rider over fences ; and then they should at first be 

 given plenty of time, and allowed to take the fences quite 

 slowly before being asked to gallop over them. Animals 

 so trained will always be able to " put in a little one " 

 if they have misjudged their distance at a fence, and will 

 seldom fall. A child needs to learn to walk before it 

 can run. 



Many horses at first appear to have httle notion of 

 jumping, and yet in the end make useful fencers. Occa- 

 sionally a very mulish animal may be met with, which 

 obstinately refuses to try to jump, or invariably endeavours 

 to crash through the obstacle. Falls may even not suffice 

 to educate the animal to do better. Before giving up the 

 contest altogether in despair it is well to try the old dodge 

 of the circus trainer, and keep the horse absolutely without 

 water for two days. A fence made of railway sleepers, or 

 strong boards, in a triangular shape, with a broad base, 

 should then be fixed in a gateway, or similar place, where 

 the horse cannot run round it, and a man placed with a 

 bucket of water so that the horse can see it. The moment 

 the horse catches sight of the water it will jump over any 

 obstacle, to get to the bucket and slake its thirst. After the 

 horse has had a few mouthfuls the man may take the bucket 

 round to the other side of the fence, and the horse is 

 compelled to jump it again, if it wishes to finish its draught. 

 A lesson of this sort is long remembered, and frequently all 

 further trouble is obviated thereby. It should ever be a 

 maxim that when young horses are being taught to jump 

 timber of any description it must be quite unbreakable, 

 so that carelessness in jumping will be followed by a bad 

 scramble, even if a fall is saved. But the timber should 

 never be raised up high until the pupil has well learned its 



