128 HORSE MANAGEMENT IN INDIA 



(see "Illustrated Horse Breaking"), lie will be far less 

 liable to become spoiled by a rider of but moderate skill, 

 than he would be had he not received his first lessons 

 with the " long reins " and '' leading-rein crupper." 



"A very safe way for teaching horses to jump is to 

 make a circular course of not less than 5 yards broad 

 and about 150 yards in circumference, and enclose it 

 with high palings, while four or five fences of different 

 kinds — say, a hurdle topped with brushwood, an Irish 

 bank, a stone wall, a water jump, and a post and rails — 

 may be placed at intervals round it. The horse is then 

 turned loose in this kind of circus, either with or without 

 a leader, and is made to jump with a little persuasion. 

 This plan should be used only as an introduction to 

 schooling." 



After a horse has become perfect in his preliminary 

 work, he should be gradually brought on to the nego- 

 tiation, if possible, of a "natural" line of country, or, 

 failing it, by one of " made " fences. At first the best 

 kind of obstacle for a young or unschooled horse, is low 

 hedges or fences made up of thorns, as they will make 

 the animal see the necessity of clearing them, without, at 

 the same time, frightening him by bringing him down. 

 The height, of course, should be gradually increased. 

 Special attention should be paid to getting him clever at 

 water and fences that have a ditch in front of them, as 

 they are, of all others, the ones which horses, as a rule, are 

 most liable to refuse. " Artificial water," which is used on 

 many training courses in England, and consists of a white 

 sheet or whitewashed strip of ground of the required 

 length and breadth, with a bushed fence of a couple of 



