I consider it a bad plan for a horse to come into the ring too fresh. Some people seem to think that horses must be saved up for the show. I think, on the contrary, that horses should be worked quietly and regularly for weeks before and during the show as well. In the first place, the music, the noise of the crowd, the strangeness of the scene, and of such a gathering of people, all tend to excite a horse and make him more difficult to control, so that this excitement will give a horse all the appearance of spirit that is needed. Besides this, a very fresh horse rarely shows good manners, and in all ladies’ classes manners count fifty per cent. By manners I mean that on entering the show ring a horse must not look as though he were about to make even a small, unharmful buck; he must not be inclined to kick at the horse back of him nor to bite the horse in front of him; he must not stop at the gate as he passes it, nor must he try to edge in toward the centre of the ring while going around or when changing; he must not hold his head either too high or too low; he must not seem to be taking too much hold on the bit, nor must it require three or four times around the ring to
settle him down. In other words, he should not look as if he were being exercised rather than shown.
Lady’s Park Hack (Marksman) as he was when First Shown
In England they have a very good method of showing horses in the ring; that is, they start them at the canter, then bring them down to the trot, and lastly down to the walk. In this way a horse is well settled down, has lost most of his freshness and excitement, and will usually walk quietly, as he should.
Here we start at the walk, then take the trot, and then the canter. Consequently many horses
under the influence of the excitement of the music and noise will not walk or stop, but jigjog and side step, which condemns a lady’s horse at once. Were these same horses ridden in the English way, they would be quiet by the time they came to the walk and would win the blue ribbon which they deserve.
Marksman a year later, after he had been “Fined Down,” when he won the Championship
It is particularly desirable that this English method of showing horses should be adopted, now that the English type of riding horse—that is, a thorough or three-quarter bred—is becoming so popular