A four-year-old may be allowed to follow the hounds when running for a short distance, but at the first check should be ridden home quietly, and if the run is very fast he should be eased off, and when the field is out of sight turned homewards.
A five-year-old may do a little more, but must not be ridden in a long or fast run, neither must he be out with the hounds more than three hours, for he is still a baby, having only just shed his milk teeth, and donned his permanent ones. Every hunting man knows [91] ]that a horse is not fit to go through a run until he is six years old.
By the preceding remarks it will be seen that unless a man can forego the excitement of the chase he is not capable of breaking-in a colt with the ultimate view of making him a hunter.
To teach the colt to leap, the best way is to take him over small fences every now and then with hounds; but it will be as well to give him lessons in cold blood also, and for that purpose a few artificial fences may be put up in a field, care being taken to vary them. Thus, you may have a plain hedge, a hedge with a ditch on one side of it, and another with a ditch on both sides; some hurdles, and a plain but low post and rail fence. These fences should not be high, three feet six inches to four feet being quite high enough; the hurdles and post and rails should be firmly fixed, otherwise the colt will soon find out that they are easily knocked down, and then will not even try to clear them. A fall or two over timber [92] ]at the commencement will soon teach the animal that the fences cannot be thrown down, but that to elude a ‘spill’ they must be cleared properly. The colt should be ridden very quietly at his fences, his head should be tolerably slack, and every endeavour on the part of the rider should be brought into play to get the young animal to fence as quietly as he would canter over a field; by these means rushing at fences is overcome, or rather not taught, and in the event of a slip or fall the animal has a good chance of recovering himself, having the free use of his head and the pace being moderate. One constantly hears of such and such a rider being very good, owing to his being able to lift his horse at his fences. Can a man lift a horse when he is on his back? Could a man—booted and spurred if you like—seated across a form or chair with his feet off the ground, lift it? It is a perfect impossibility for a man to lift his horse at a fence, and those people who are in the habit of using this expression evidently do not think of what they [93] ]are saying. What they really do mean is, that the rider draws his horse on to his haunches at his fence and then, with whip or spur, sends him over. This is all very well—but, for all that, is bad horsemanship—at an easy, clean fence; but if the leap should be an awkward one, with the taking off or landing (or perhaps both) bad, a horse so ridden would be sure to fall short of his leap, and, through his head being too much confined, when he does come to grief he is unable to help himself. Therefore, make it a rule to give your horse his head and allow him to take his leaps as he thinks best, for depend upon it his instinct will teach him what is required far better than you can. I have seen many a fall in the hunting-field through no fault whatever of the horse, but owing to the meddling of his rider who imagined he was able to lift or assist him. When a horse has over-jumped himself or is in danger of losing his balance, if you pull at the bit it disconcerts him, draws his attention away from his danger, and down he goes as a rule. I [94] ]will here relate a case in point. The hounds were running when a very high bank stopped the field, who, one by one, were getting through a gap in the fence, when a horseman, being impatient of waiting his turn, backed his horse a few paces and rode him quietly at the bank which was over six feet high. The horse (a four-year-old) landed on the top, but owing to its height wavered, and seemed inclined to fall either backwards or forwards. The rider, with great tact, sat motionless, and allowed the colt the free use of his head, when he soon recovered his balance, and jumping down on the opposite side landed in safety and joined the hunt. Now, supposing an ordinary rider had been in this predicament on the top of the bank, he would have handled the reins and thus either pulled the animal back on the top of him or else have fallen on the opposite side; in either case there would have been broken bones, if not loss of life. There is one exception to allowing a colt to take his leaps as he thinks best, and that is when going over water [95] ]or over a fence with a wide ditch on one side or a ditch on both sides. When a wide-jump has to be negotiated, the colt must be sent full speed at it, so as to cover it in his stride, being the opposite to high jumping; for the higher the fence the slower should the horse be ridden at it. I was riding a colt to hounds once, when a watercourse came in our way; it was not a wide one, being only about twelve feet across, but it was six or eight feet deep with bricked sides and having very little water at the bottom of it, altogether forming an ugly jump for a young one who had never been over water before. I sent him at it at a good pace, but feeling he wavered on nearing it I swerved him round and put him at it again, when he again slackened speed, and knowing that he would not refuse I allowed him to do as he liked. He looked down at the bottom of it for a second or so, and then gathering himself together leaped over it standing, but fell on the opposite bank with his hind fetlocks hanging over the bank; another three or four inches [96] ]would have cleared it, but he fell so collectedly that he did not unseat me although I had to dismount to allow him to regain his feet. I always considered this a good lesson, for the colt afterwards, whenever nearing a water-jump, increased his speed of his own accord, having evidently learnt that water could not be crossed standing. Depend upon it, the less you try to teach a colt to go across country the better, for he can do it much better than you can teach him, provided you only leave him alone.
In teaching a colt over artificial fences, great care must be taken not to sicken him of his work, but every endeavour should be made to get him to be fond and eager to jump; therefore, if he is ridden once backwards and forwards over the fences three times a week it will be quite sufficient. In the meantime you may give him a leap or two out of one field into another, or take him out with the hounds for a short distance.
A perfect leaper is one who takes his fences [97] ]as a matter of course, just as he would canter from furrow to furrow over a field; nothing can be worse than a horse who, on seeing a fence before him, rushes at it nolens volens; as, owing to the impetus thus gained, if he makes a mistake it is very difficult for him to recover himself. Therefore, take every precaution to teach your colt to leap quietly and without any fuss.
When a horse is required to hunt in a bank country, it is a very common practice to attach a cavasson to his bridle and lead him over a few of these fences, but I do not consider this good practice, or indeed for any kind of leaping. For if he is taken over small banks at first he will learn the use of his legs, which in reality is the object required, and if he should by chance fall, the pace being so slow and the height so insignificant, the rider, if he be competent to break-in a colt at all, will not hurt himself: for a good rider ought to know how to fall well as well as how to ride well. When you fall try to retain the reins in your [98] ]hand, but if you see that by so doing you run the danger of the animal rolling over or striking you, you must let them loose, and if you are quickly on your legs again you may regain them before the horse has recovered himself; but if not, it is far better to have a run to catch your steed than undergo the chance of being crushed or maimed by him.
High-couraged generous horses are apt to go faster and do more work than they should; therefore they should be kept in check, or their eagerness to do their work will not keep pace with their strength and endurance. On the contrary, sluggish animals require a great deal of work to make them fit to gallop, and they also must be roused up from time to time.
Although I feel it is not within the province of this little volume, I wish to draw the attention of my readers to the malpractice of washing horses’ legs and feet, and also of ‘stopping’ the feet. When washing horses’ legs you are almost sure not to dry them thoroughly, thereby inducing cracked heels and the so-called ‘mud fever;’ [99] ]but if on the return of the animal to his stable the worst of the mud is brushed off with a stiff brush, and when dry well brushed again, the increased circulation so produced will excite a healthy action of the skin and prevent all disease. Horses’ feet can very well be cleansed by means of a pick and a cloth without resorting to water, which being absorbed by capillary attraction into the horn-fibres, causes them to dilate; and thus the horn-substance, instead of being hard and compact, is rendered soft and spongy. Again, horses’ feet should not be ‘stopped,’ nor should they be suffered to stand in their excretions, for the ammonia given off from the dung and urine dilates to a great extent the horn-fibres, thus causing the horn to be so soft that ‘thrush’ is the consequent disease. I have lately made microscopic experiments on the healthy horn, the horn soaked with water, and that with ammonia and water, and found the fibres in the horny sole soaked in water to be twice the size of the natural or healthy horn, whilst that in contact with [100] ]ammonia showed the fibres to be three times the size of those in healthy horn. English racers in Australia are allowed seven pounds because their feet are unable to withstand the hard ground; and, for the same reason, English horses are useless for racing purposes in India. Shoes are nailed to horses’ feet for the very reason that nature did not make them hard enough to stand work on metal roads, therefore why do people put stopping into their horses’ feet to make them softer, thus counteracting to a certain extent the benefit derived from the shoes? Surely if people desire soft feet there is rain enough in this country, puddles enough on the roads, and surface water ad libitum on the fields, to effect their purpose without resorting to such a filthy, beastly thing as cowdung. Horses’ feet get so soaked with water during their work or exercise, that the aim of every horse owner should be to keep them as dry as possible when in the stable, instead of doing their best to make them rotten and diseased. Horses in dry climates, such as India and [101] ]Australia, have very hard feet because they are never wet, and for this reason are seldom shod except when used for work on metal roads; but when in the rainy season they get soft they are obliged to be shod, because their feet are not hard enough.
Paring horses’ feet is also a very bad practice. Nature meant the sole to be strong, but when pared it becomes weak, unable to withstand hard substances, and thus gets bruised and subject to corns &c. The knife should, in all cases, be kept off the feet, the rasp being the best instrument with which to shorten the walls, and it is also perfectly able to remove all exfoliated horn from the sole. Is there any sense in paring an animal’s feet, and then having to put on leather soles to protect them?