In jumping, the reins should never be long and must always be held at such length that if the horse touches or stumbles he can be pulled up, and this can only be done by carrying the hands well forward in the way I have described. They must be carried forward in order to give him his head, for, when a horse comes to a jump, he throws his head very far forward so as to get his balance and exert his greatest strength.
What I have said above applies equally to a horse that rushes his jumps, to one that takes them in his stride, and to one that pops over. It is particularly important to keep a rusher well in hand and not allow him to get such speed before the take-off that he cannot rise, for, in that case, he is almost sure to crash into the fence and have a very bad fall. While most horses need a good deal of speed to carry them over the jumps, they should not be at their top speed, for if they are they will not rise.
What I have said above applies to an American-trained hunter.
If you are riding an English-trained hunter, the manner of approaching a jump is entirely different. With them, if you give them their head too much they stop, so that in order to make them jump you
have to lean back and pull on the reins. If you attempt to jump an English-trained horse in the American way or an American-trained horse in the English way, you are very apt to come to grief.
Side-Saddle, Front View, Rising
What has been said above with regard to the manner of jumping a fence applies equally to jumping a ditch or anything else.
The higher or the broader a jump, the more important it is to take it correctly. The difference between the various jumps is well expressed in the old maxim, “Fast at water and ditches and slow at
timber”; but there is so much timber and so few ditches and water jumps in this country, and the pace is so fast, that this advice is hard to follow. When I say fast I refer to drag hunting.