RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 



temporise, and try to win by diplomacy the terms 

 we dare not wrest by force. If the latter alter- 

 native must needs be accepted, in this as in most 

 stand-up fights, it will be found that the first 

 blow is half the battle. The rider should take 

 his horse short by the head and let him have two 

 or three stingers with a cutting whip — not more 

 — particularly, if on a thoroughbred one, as low 

 down the flanks as can be reached, administered 

 without warning, and in quick succession, sitting 

 back as prepared for the plunge into the air that 

 will inevitably follow, keeping his horse's head 

 well up the while to prevent buck-jumping. He 

 should then turn the animal round and round 

 half a dozen times, till it is confused, and start it 

 off at a speed in any direction where there is 

 room for a gallop. Blown, startled, and intimi- 

 dated, he will in all probability find his pupil 

 perfectly amenable to reason when he pulls up, 

 and should then coax and soothe him into an 

 equable frame of mind once more. Such, how- 

 ever, is an extreme case. It is far better to avoid 

 the ultima ratio. In equitation, as in matrimony, 

 there should never arise the first quarrel. 

 Obedience, in horses, ought to be a matter of 

 habit, contracted so imperceptibly that its acquire- 

 ment can scarcely be called a lesson. 



This is why the hunting-field is such a good 

 school for leaping. Horses of every kind are 



14 



