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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: A WATER JUMP.]
It will be interesting to hear exactly what so great an authority has
to say on this subject. After remarking that the bar should not be
covered with anything to diminish its hardness, he proceeds: “I let
two men hold the bare bar at six inches above the ground. The rider
advances towards it at a walk, and at the moment when the horse, aided
by the rider, takes the leap, the two men _raise the bar six inches_.”
The horse naturally strikes his feet against it. “I make him begin
again, until he clears the bar without touching, notwithstanding the
repeated raising of it at each leap. Then I have the bar held at a
foot above the ground, and, as before, it will be raised six inches
at the moment of the leap. When the horse is accustomed to clear
this new elevation, I have the bar gradually held six inches higher,
still continuing to raise it six inches at each leap, and I thus
succeed, after a few lessons given with the regular progression above
described, in making all horses jump obstacles of a height that they
would otherwise never have been able to clear. This simple proceeding,
well applied, will be useful even to exceptional horses, such as
steeple-chasers, by teaching them to come more carefully to the point
of ‘taking off,’ and will render falls less frequent.” The idea of M.
Baucher is to get the horse in the habit of jumping a little higher
than he thinks necessary, so as to be on the safe side, and a very good
idea it is. It is a practice among experienced riders to hounds in
England, instead of leaping a post-and-rail fence midway between the
posts, to leap as close to a post as possible, or directly over it when
it is not much higher than the rail.
To return to our equine scholar, having practised him for a month or so
at an elevation of two feet, his muscles will have adapted themselves
to the new strain put upon them, and it will be safe to begin to raise
the bar higher, and gradually to go up nearly to the limit of his
ability. It is well, however, never to ask too much, as even a willing
leaper will be sometimes so disgusted at what he thinks tyrannical
exactions as to refuse obstinately ever to try again. The horse should
never be allowed to rush at the bar, but should always, if approaching
at a gallop, be collected, as much as a hundred feet away, so as to
be under perfect control. The higher the leap, the slower the pace at
which it should be taken, for the very momentum acquired by a rush,
which would be useful in a water leap, would carry the animal against
the bar instead of over it. The reins should be held in both hands,
and after the horse has been collected with the curb, as may very
likely be necessary, the curb should be relaxed, so that on approaching
the leap he may feel only the gentle pressure of the snaffle, which
will not make him fear to thrust forward his head, a fear which would
possibly result in bringing him down on all fours at once, or even with
the hind-feet first. As he rises to his leap, keep a steady but very
gentle tension on the reins, being ready to support him firmly as his
fore-feet touch the earth.
It is now time to experiment with low stone walls and with brooks,
being always on your guard against those concealed man-traps in the
shape of loose stones, which form one of the chief dangers of leaping
in this country.
[Illustration: RISING TO THE LEAP.]
All this while we have been assuming the rider to be an accomplished
horsewoman, and quite _au fait_ at her fences. If, however, the
business is entirely new to her, let her not be at all disheartened,
for her own education can be carried on simultaneously with that of
the horse, and without the least detriment to it. In this case, keep
to the standing leap--that is, the leap taken from a walk--although
it is really the most difficult to sit, until you can support the
unusual motion without being in the least loosened in the saddle, and
do not try the higher ones till you are perfect in the lower. The hands
should be held as low as possible above the right knee, and pretty
close to the body, so that they may have room to yield, and that the
sudden thrusting out of the horse’s head may not jerk you forward in
the saddle, in which case the powerful impulsion of the hind-legs
might pitch you out altogether. The advice is often given in books
to lean forward and then backward in the leap, but the fact is that
beginners, if they lean forward intentionally, seldom get back in time
to avoid the shock above alluded to, and teachers, therefore, as well
as friendly _coaches_, often call out “lean back” as a lady nears the
bar, which results in giving the learner an awkward though perhaps not
unsafe manner. The fact is that there is no necessity to try to lean
forward, as the rising of the horse will bring you involuntarily into
a position perpendicular to the ground, while the play of thigh and
waist to prevent being tossed up is of the same kind as that in the
gallop, only proportionately increased, and it will become instinctive
if leaping is begun moderately and carried on progressively as already
recommended. In coming down you can hardly lean too far back. The left
foot should not be thrust forward, but kept straight, or drawn a very
little back and held close against the horse’s side; the stirrup, into
which the foot is pushed to the instep, being one or two holes shorter
than for ordinary riding. On approaching the fence, be particular
to do nothing to distract the animal’s attention, as, for instance,
by ejaculations or nervous movements of the reins and person; and
after the leap do not fail to reward him by praises and caresses, for
it cannot be too deeply impressed on the mind that he is exceedingly
sensitive to them, and will consider them an ample reward for his
exertion.
[Illustration: COMING DOWN.]
The object of these instructions being to enable a lady to master the
art of leaping without a regular instructor, it will not be amiss
to sum up the advice already given at length, in the words of two
competent authorities, “Vieille Moustache” and Mr. Sidney. The former
says:
“She should take a firm hold of the upper crutch of the saddle with
the right knee, sit well into the saddle--not back of it, because the
farther back the greater the concussion when the horse alights--put her
left foot well home in the stirrup, and press her left thigh firmly
against the third crutch, while keeping the left knee flexible; lean
slightly forward, avoid stiffening her waist, in order to throw the
upper part of her figure backward at the right moment to preserve her
balance. The hands must not move except with the body, and above all
no attempt to enliven the horse by jagging his mouth as he is about to
rise--a pernicious habit, practised by riders of both sexes who ought
to know better. Reins too short, head too forward, and pace too violent
are the ordinary faults of beginners. Women have on their saddles a
firmer seat for leaping than men.”
Mr. Sidney remarks: “A sheep hurdle is quite high enough and the trunk
of a tree is quite wide enough for the first steps in leaping. Balance,
gripe of the pommels, and support of the stirrup must be combined;
the seat as near the centre of the horse’s back as the pommels will
permit; the figure erect, not rigid, with the shoulders back, ready
to bend gently backward as the horse rises in the air--not leaning
forward, twisted over on the near side, like a popular spirited and
absurd picture (“First at the Fence”), which really shows ‘how not to
do it;’ the snaffle-reins held in both hands, at a length that will
enable the horse fully to extend himself, and the rider to bear on his
mouth as she bends back over his croup when he is landing. All this
time her eyes should be looking between the horse’s ears, so as to keep
perfectly square in the saddle.”
If the reader carries out the instruction already given with care, and
exercises good sense and judgment, it is very unlikely that she will
have a fall. Should this happen, however, there are two things to be
remembered, first to get instantly away from the horse by scrambling
or rolling, and secondly to keep hold of the reins. In any event, the
timid may be reassured by reflecting that a fall is usually without any
serious result, it being by no means as dangerous to come down with the
horse as to be thrown from him.