[PART III.]
LEAPING.
One pleasant winter afternoon a fashionably dressed young man, crop in hand, spur on heel, and mounted on a tall horse, was seen to emerge briskly from a little grove in a gentleman’s place, and come to a sudden halt in the level field across which he had intended to gallop. The cause was a new ditch, deep though narrow, stretching across from fence to fence before him. He looked at the obstacle a moment, then up and down the field, and remarked to a gardener, an old Scotchman, who stood looking on, spade in hand, “Well, I suppose I must go back.” “I suppose so,” said the old fellow, dryly, looking up out of the corner of his eye with an almost imperceptible smile. The young man reddened, hesitated, and then turned away, saying, as if the other’s thoughts had been spoken out, “To tell the truth, I don’t know whether my horse would if he could, nor whether he could if he would.” “An’ the same o’ yourself,” muttered the old man in his grizzled beard. The sarcasm was not to be wondered at, as the speaker remembered what he had many a time seen, and very likely himself done in his younger days in some hunting field of the old country, for the ditch before him could have been cleared by an active boy, on his own legs, with a good run. Moreover, it is not improbable that the reader is ready to agree with the old satirist in thinking the young man a “muff.” Nevertheless, both horse and rider might easily have come to grief, for the steep banks were crumbly, and while the rider’s seat was not of the firmest, his mount was straight in the shoulder and a little stiff in the pastern. However, they were both as well fitted to overcome such a difficulty as nine-tenths of American horses and riders, and a very little previous practice would have enabled them to spring over without bestowing a second thought upon it. The total indifference on this subject of leaping among our people is really quite remarkable, for one can hardly take a ride anywhere in the country without there arising some occasions when even a little knowledge of the art would have added to one’s pleasure. How often, for instance, an easy fence separates the dusty road, too hard as well as too hot for fast riding, from some cool wood with its shaded turf, where a gallop would be delightful and would do the horse good instead of harm. The reason of this indifference is not only the fear of getting shaken off, but a doubt as to the horse’s ability to leap, and a dread of doing him some harm by such an unusual exertion. All these apprehensions are very likely well-founded, for if you have never done any leaping your first essay will, in all probability, give you a severe shock. Then if your horse is green at this sort of work, and the fence is at all difficult, he will not improbably refuse altogether, or jump so unwillingly and clumsily as to risk your bones as well as his own; and if he does not really fall, he may cause such a strain upon unaccustomed muscles as to set up a “splint” or “spavin,” producing at least temporary lameness. Nevertheless, all these excellent reasons for not trying to leap can gradually, but rapidly and with perfect safety, be removed by practice, and practice of a kind very pleasant and interesting, while at the same time improving to your seat, giving it a firmness under all circumstances which no amount of riding on the highway could ever do.
APPROACHING A FENCE.
Some horses are exceedingly fond of leaping, but the majority are indifferent, though on the whole rather averse to it, while a few positively will not try at all. The first thing to be done is to get your horse to take low and easy leaps without repugnance. For this purpose lay the bar you intend to use on the ground, and lead him over it without looking back at him or giving him any reason to suppose that you have any particular object in so doing. Should he object to stepping over it, be patient though firm, and when he has finally done so, pat and praise him; but if he has been bred in this country, and is used to bar places, he will probably give no trouble at this stage of his education. Now mount him and repeat the operation; then, having the bar raised a few inches, do so again, and continue doing so, always at a walk, until it is so high that he can no longer step over it. American horses are famous for their excellent tempers; nevertheless, at this point, unless you manage with care and with a judicious reference to equine peculiarities of mind and temper, you may meet with a refusal to proceed. In this event you must not use force or severity, or you may disgust the horse, perhaps forever, with the very exercise you wish him to learn to enjoy, but must content yourself with preventing him from sheering off and keeping him facing his task till, sooner or later, he will go over. Now praise him and make much of him, and ask no more jumping till the next lesson. It is not a good plan to put the bar up in an open place, for the horse will think it nonsense, and unless he is unusually docile will resent what will seem to him to be an imposition in forcing him to jump over it when he could easily go around it. A bar place or gate-way is much better, as it cannot be “flanked,” and he will not wonder at being asked to go through it, but he should never be ridden backward and forward over the bar, nor allowed to see it raised, but should be brought around to it by a circuit which, if possible, should be large enough to make him forget the leaping, or think of it only as an accidental episode in the ride. The ground also should be no harder than good firm turf. Let him jump towards his stable or towards home by preference, and it will be well to let your assistant hold some little article of food which he is especially fond of in view just beyond the bar, so that his attention may be distracted from the effort, while an agreeable association is given him with it, and he is prevented from thinking that the obstacle is one of your making. Bear in mind that your object at present is threefold: to induce him to take a liking for the new exercise; to give him ease and confidence in the performance of it; and to train and strengthen by use the muscles brought into play, so that none of the unpleasant results mentioned above may follow. Therefore do not for a considerable time set the bar more than two feet high, but practise him at it several times a day; first, as already said, at a walk, then at a slow trot, and then at a canter, making him lead first with one foot, then with the other, until he not only springs over without touching and without apparently thinking anything about it, but shows by his lengthening or shortening his stride on approaching, so as to “take off” at the right distance, that his eye is becoming educated; and, finally, until a careful daily inspection of his feet and legs has proved that no soreness or tenderness anywhere is caused by this exercise. If he does not jump clean, but knocks the bar with his feet, it may be because he underestimates the height, as not only horses but men too are apt to do in the case of open fences made with posts and rails; therefore have a broad piece of board, two feet long, stood up against the bar like a post, and make him leap over it. If he still strikes, it will be well to try the plan which M. Baucher so enthusiastically recommends for all horses, and which consists in raising the bar a little just as the horse is in the act of springing.
