THE ART OF FALLING 



I have also known the above-named ladies ride 

 donkeys barebacked over hurdles. 



If it is necessary to learn how to stick to the saddle, 

 it is equally so to learn how to fall out of it, and this 

 latter may, and should be, reduced to an art ; but such 

 can only be attained by constant practice. At no time 

 can anyone be perfectly safe, and most of us have at 

 one time or other had cause to thank Providence for 

 many a hairbreadth escape ; but comparative immunity 

 from actual danger may be secured by constant practice 

 in the art of falling when we are young. The practice 

 of learning to fall over hurdles will prove invaluable in 

 after-life, whether a fall be a slow one or the reverse. 

 Even in racing, the knowledge of how to get clear of a 

 rolling horse, and the power to do so instinctively, are 

 of the greatest service. 



The followinor is an extract from the letter of a 

 correspondent to the Field : ' The South American 

 Gauchos learn the art of falling in a much more 

 dangerous fashion than falling over hurdles. They 

 also begin young thus, as they earn their living on 

 horseback. They ride long; the stirrup being a small 

 one, only admitting the three larger toes, they cannot 

 get hung up (as with our English ones) ; they ride on 

 the balance, with long leathers, and body lying well 

 back when at the gallop. Their method of practising 

 the art of fallino- is a most dano^erous one. The rider 

 is put on a cheap horse, say worth a pound, the best 

 ones being worth about six pounds. The noose of a 

 sixty-yard lasso is tied to the fetlock of the near fore- 

 leg round the pastern-joint. A Gaucho on foot holds 

 the other end of the lasso. The rider forces his horse 

 full gallop past the holder of the lasso, who, when he 



