HAND 



"passage" in the school. It differs only in 

 direction and degree. As much dexterity is 

 required to prevent some playful flyer recently 

 put in training from breaking out in a game of 

 romps, when he ought to be minding his business 

 in "the string," as to call forth the well-drilled 

 efforts of a war-horse, answering wrist and leg 

 with disciplined activity, ready to " rein back," 

 " pass," " wheel,"— 



"And high curvet that not in vain, 

 The sword-sway may descend amain 

 On foeman's casque below." 



Chifney, the great jockey of his day, wrote an 

 elaborate treatise on handling, laying down the 

 somewhat untenable position, that even a race- 

 horse should be held as if with a silken thread. 



I have noticed, too, that our best steeplechase 

 riders have particularly fine hands when crossing 

 a country with hounds ; nor does their professional 

 practice seem to make them over-hasty at their 

 fences, when there is time to do these with 

 deliberation. I imagine that to ride a steeple- 

 chase well, over a strong line, is the highest 

 possible test of what we may call "all-round" 

 horsemanship. My own experience in the silk 

 jacket has been of the slightest ; and I confess 

 that, like Falstaff with his reasons, I never fancied 

 being rattled quite so fast at my fences "on 

 compulsion." 



83 



