Taking off
By watching his stride one can tell when he will take off. At that moment he will stretch out his neck; then she must, by instantly pushing them forward, let her hands yield to his mouth. This must be accurately calculated, for should the pressure on his mouth be varied too suddenly and at the wrong time, it would throw him out of his stride by letting go of his mouth when he needed steadying. Some advocate leaning forward before leaning back as the horse takes off, but the slight involuntary motion communicated to the body by thrusting the hands forward will be sufficient to precede the backward movement. Before he has finished his effort, she must lean back just enough (but no farther) to avoid being thrown forward by the action of his quarters or by the angle at which he comes down. Her left heel should not come in contact with him after he has taken off, although she may strike him with it to urge him on if he goes at the jump too slowly. Below the waist she must be firm and immovable; above, yielding and flexible. LandingAs the horse lands, she regains her upright position, and should be careful that he does not pull the reins through her fingers. Under all circumstances she must have too firm a hold on the reins to admit of such an occurrence. If the horse stumbles at the moment of landing, he needs the support of her hands; or should he bolt, it must not be necessary to pull in the slack rein before being able to check him.
Lifting
One of the most erroneous theories extant is that it is desirable to "lift" a horse at his fences. Doing so only necessitates carrying the weight of his rider's hands on his mouth, and risks pulling the horse into the jump, while he is hindered from stretching his neck, as he must to land safely and correctly. Hanging on to his mouth is often the cause of a horse's landing on all four feet at once, or dropping too close to the jump. The pull on the reins holds him back, thus inducing these bad habits, and will often make him refuse or dread to jump, knowing that it entails a sharp jerk on his sensitive mouth. To a casual or ignorant observer it sometimes looks as though a good rider were "lifting" his horse; but it only appears so because, knowing intuitively at just what instant his hands must yield, he so accurately gives to the animal's mouth that the action of the horse's mouth and the rider's hands is simultaneous.
ABOUT TO LAND
Out of Doors
After some practice in the ring, a woman may try jumping out-of-doors, for inside there is not a sufficient variety of obstacles; and she should then have a breast-plate attached to her saddle. By this time she should, in jumping, hold her reins in one hand, the snaffle inside, curb outside, and quite loose. As she goes towards a jump, her right hand should be placed in front of the left on the snaffle to steady the horse. In this way she can remove it without leaving an uneven pressure on the horse's mouth, as would be the case if, as is customary, her hand had rested on the two right reins, then been suddenly withdrawn in order to urge the horse with the whip, or to protect the face from overhanging branches.
Pilot