12(5 FORM AND ACTION. 



wishes to leap high, he erects his head, and by this simple move- 

 ment, the fore quarters pressing back upon the hind, a vertical 

 direction is given to the spring. If, on the other hand, he only de- 

 sires, as in the gallop, to leap in a direction forward, the neck 

 levels itself on a line with the ground, and the head, stretching 

 forward to the utmost, carries the centre of gravity along with 

 it, and thus aids the projection ; the hind quarters propelling the 

 body, raised from the ground to a height only sufficient to enable 

 the limbs to clear the leap." 



It will be seen from what has been said, that a horse will 

 take a leap after two different modes : he will, as the phrases go } 

 take it either "standing" or "flying." "A standing leap" is 

 taken, without any preparatory run, from the ground the animal is 

 actually standing upon. Finding it a difficult matter to spring up 

 from the ground with all four feet at once out of a stale of rest, 

 he first rears to the height required to clear the leap, and then, 

 with a sort of kick, flings his hind feet after ; the leap altogether 

 being, as I observed before, a compound of a short rear and a 

 short or imperfect kick. " The flying leap," properly so called, is 

 that taken at a gallop, nothing further being required to produce 

 it than to elevate the head and throw extra spring into the stride, 

 the impetus of the pace — which, if but moderate and the horse 

 fresh, he much augments as he approaches the leap — being suffi- 

 cient to take the animal over : it is the easiest and commonly the 

 safest leap both for horse and rider. To shew the powers of leap- 

 ing horses possess, some have been known to jump over bars or 

 fences higher than themselves ; and Nimrod — the late Mr. Ap- 

 perley- — relates an instance in which a hunter cleared seven yards 

 of space*. Ponies, in general, for their size, are better leapers 

 than large horses : this appears to arise from greater concentration 

 of power combined with the less weight they have to move. 

 Thorough-bred horses are seldom clever leapers ; a circumstance 

 owing, apparently, to their deficiency in rearing powers. 



* I saw an account the other day in the " Sporting Magazine" of a horse 

 in a steeple-chase making "a jump of twenty-two feet." 



