BROOK JUMPING.
Horses do not, as a rule, enjoy jumping water; some blood ones don’t object to it, but most animals hate it, and will refuse if they can, especially where they have at any time had what is called “a cold bath.” Should you ever happen to be riding a horse who, on seeing water, gradually shortens his stride, and “shuts up” as he approaches it, do not try to get him over, for you may be certain that he will not have it. All very fine, it may be, to talk about not allowing yourself to be conquered, but the strongest effort in the world won’t make a horse jump water safely when he once refuses it, and it will not be pleasant to stand cudgelling him upon the bank, while he plants his toes in the sedges every time that you bring him back to it, with an air as though he were saying, “You may keep me here till doomsday, but over it I won’t go, unless you hire a skiff to carry me.”
A good water-jumper, going skimming along, ought to clear eighteen or twenty feet: even five-and-twenty not being over-much accounted of (with Irish horses, at all events) where the banks are sound; yet, as a rule, a brimming brook of fourteen feet will generally stop at least half a large field. There are two reasons for this: firstly, if the water is visible from a distance, horses slacken, and riders funk; and secondly, if it runs between banks, they gallop up to look at it, and then, all is lost.
The better bred a horse is, the better water-jumper he will assuredly be. Coarse-bred horses who are clever enough at ordinary fences, will almost always go clumsily at water, if they can be got to go at it at all; the reason being that clean-bred horses are the only really good stayers, and as deep or wide water is seldom met with at the beginning of a run, they alone have the stamina to carry them safely over, after galloping perhaps a stiff line of country for thirty minutes or so, with scarcely any check. When jumping water, give your horse a very long rein, and don’t touch him with the curb. Steady him when coming up to it, and again on landing, in order that he may get safely away on the other side, and not either peck or sprawl.
If you have to jump a thorn fence, and that it is leaning towards you, be sure there is something ugly on the other side, and go at it with sufficient determination to give your horse the necessary impetus for a safe get-over. If, on the other hand, the ditch is on the taking-off side, and that the hedge leans away from you, take him very steadily and deliberately—letting him see exactly what he has to do.
Finally, if the horse that you are riding happens to be old, or what is called “dickey,” namely, shaky on the forelegs, be careful about jumping him when the ground is hard. This applies likewise to tender-footed animals. I have ridden horses in February who travelled delightfully over soft slushy ground, and fenced splendidly when up to their fetlocks in mud,—yet, when March came round, and lands were dry and hard, they stood still and shivered at the sight of even an ordinary sheep-hurdle or small scoured drain. To force a horse to jump, under such circumstances is inhuman and unwise.
SET LIKE A CENTAUR—PLENTY OF HEADROOM.