302 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN 



made up, it is beautiful to feel between your knees the ample 

 swell, or heave, of the round deep ribs beneath you, caused by 

 the long breath the horse fetches, to catch his wind for the 

 exertion. I have, on Brutus and Jack, felt a girth snap in the 

 action, when I had not jireviously run my hand over them, to 

 feel that they were not in the least too tight. A hedge is 

 reached with the ditch to you, and neither you nor your horse 

 expect anything on the other side ; but at the moment of the 

 spring, and while in the air, and about to land as you think, a 

 second wide ya^^^ling ditch lies beneath. The gallant horse 

 then must get out of the scrape in one of two ways ; either you 

 feel him expand as if he wei-e flying, sending out his shoulders 

 to such an extent that I have known Brutus and Jack snap 

 their breastplates ; or the horse, if he feels he can't thus cover 

 the unexpected width, must drop his hinder-legs, and kick the 

 bank with force enough to give him a second spring. I have 

 known Brutus kick a hard-bound wattled hedge with his hinder- 

 legs, and gain enough additional impetus to clear the second 

 ditch ; and once, over the River Brent, feeling that it was im- 

 possible to leap from bank to bank, he went in and out, stink- 

 ing the ground, luckily of gravel, with but a touch, as it were, 

 of his hinder-legs, sending the water flying, but landing without 

 a fall. To sit on a horse, and feel all this flying power and 

 activity beneath you, is, I maintain, the most delightful sensa- 

 tion experienced in the noble science of horsemanship. To sit 

 on a horse who is a good swimmer— their method of swimming 

 is widely different ; I had a little horse, called " Game Cock," 

 who swam just as smoothly as a Newfoundland dog — is also a 

 graceful thing ; but if the rider has long legs, let him cross his 

 stiiTups over the pommel of the saddle, and while taking very 

 good care to keep a firm and steadily-balanced seat, let him 

 keep his feet forward. A man who is not so long in the leg, 

 and who has, consequently, a shorter seat, need not take his 

 feet out of the stirrups at all, but let him be sure to keep them 

 in. If the horse is in a double rein, gather up the curb short 

 enough to keep it fi-om the fore-legs or much sway in the water. 



