Do not urge your horse suddenly from a canter into a full gallop; let him settle down to his pace gradually—steady him. Being jumped off, like a racehorse with a flying start at the fall of the flag, is very apt to make a hot, high-couraged horse run away or attempt to do so. Some horses, however, allow great liberties to be taken with them, and others none. All depends on temperament, and whether the nervous, fibrous, sanguine, or lymphatic element preponderates. And here let me remark that the fibrous temperament is the one to struggle and endure, to last the longest, and to give the maximum of ease, comfort, and satisfaction to owner and rider.
Leaping.
"Throw the broad ditch behind you; o'er the hedge
High bound, resistless; nor the deep morass refuse."
Thompson.
Though the "pleasures of the chase" are purposely excluded from this volume, the horsewoman's preliminary course of instruction would hardly be complete without a few remarks on jumping. In clearing an obstacle, a horse must to all intents and purposes go through all the motions inherent to the vices of rearing, plunging, and kicking, yet the three, when in rapid combination, are by no means difficult to accommodate one's self to. It is best to commence on a clever, steady horse—"a safe conveyance" that will go quietly at his fences, jump them without an effort, landing light as a cork, and one that will never dream of refusing. As beginners, no matter what instructors may say and protest, will invariably, for the first few leaps, till they acquire confidence, grip, and balance, ride to some extent "in the horse's mouth," they should be placed on an animal with not too sensitive a mouth, one that can go pleasantly in a plain snaffle.
Begin with something low, simple, and easy—say a three feet high gorsed hurdle, so thickly laced with the whin that daylight cannot be seen through, with a low white-painted rail some little distance from it on the take-off side. If there be a ditch between the rail and the fence, so much the better, for the more the horse spreads himself the easier it will be to the rider, the jerk or prop on landing the less severe. Some horses sail over the largest obstacle, land, and are away again without their appearing to call upon themselves for any extra exertion; they clear it in their stride. Hunters that know their business can be trotted up to five-barred gates and stiff timber, which they will clear with consummate ease; but height and width require distinct efforts, and the rear and kick in this mode of negotiating a fence are so pronounced and so sudden that they would be certain to unseat the novice.
THE LEAP.