Hints on Horsemanship, to a Nephew and Niece / or, Common Sense and Common Errors in Common Riding

ance of the jockey to his horse.-Standing on the stirrups.-Difference between the gallop and the leap.-Ste

s falling. How often do we hear a man assert that his horse would have been down with him forty times if he had not held him up; that

A pull from a curb will indeed give the horse so much pain in the mouth that he will throw his head up, and this so flatters the hand that its prowess has saved him, that the rider exclaims "It may be impossible, but it happens every day. Shall I not believe my own senses?" The ans

own eyes the m

in that the ea

ourney'd fifty

s being circu

lieved from their weight, and that is the instant in which the horse makes his effort to recover himself. If by giving him pain in his mouth, you force him to raise his head and neck instead of sinking them, his shoulders will still remain encumbered with the weight of them; more than this, as action and reaction are equal and in contrary directions, the muscular power employed to raise the head and neck will act to sink the shoulders and knees. The mechanical impossibility of the rider assisting his horse when falling may be demonstrated thus: no motion can be given to a body without a foreign force or a foreign fulcrum. Your strength is not a foreign force, since it is employed entirely on the horse. N

to his breast, and another over the upper part of the collar, along and above the back to the tail, independent of the terret-pad and crupper. This is tying the horse's head to his tail with a vengeance.54-* To be consistent, the opponents of the theory which I have laid down should act on this principle-though I have never known them go quite so far. Sed quis custodes custodiet ipsos? What is to prevent the tail from falling forward with the body? They indeed argue, "Surely if you throw back the weight of the shoulders over the croupe of the horse, you relieve his fore-hand, and diminish the chance of his falling." This is rather to propose a new method of preventing a horse from falling, than to prove the advantage of pulling at the mouth while he is falling; for if it is of any advantage to throw your weight back, then the less you pull at the

portion to the force of the muscular stroke. But if the resistance of the ground is complete, the reaction, which is precisely equal and in a contrary direction to the action, will throw the body of the man upward and forward, and by clasping with his legs he will draw the chair also with him. But he can only accomplish in this way a very little distance with a very great exertion. If the jockey made this muscular exertion every time that his horse struck with his hind feet, his strength would be employed on the foreign fulcrum, the ground, through the medium of his horse's bony frame. Thus the jockey would contribute to the horizontal impulse of his own weight, and exactly in proportion t

easier to the jockey than using the whip, and more ef

ghs. In this position the rider has a greater power of adjusting the balance of his weight to the movements of his horse. In racin

ho rise in the stirrup at a trot; it is not surprising

im; his hind feet pass over where his fore feet rested, so that from footprint to footprint he clears very little space. In fact, owing to what is called leading with one leg, the line between his two fore feet and the line between his two hind feet are by no means at right angles to the line of his direction; so

he feet leave the ground till they again touch it. But quick breathing (the creber anhelitus) is not only a consequence of distress for wind, but it is a vital necessity when distressed for wind. And the impossibility

a horse can do this for more than a hundred yards without being distressed for wind (and I speak from experience with Mr. Drummond Hay's barbs at Tangier, which were trained to the feat). The rider starts at a pace which he knows his horse can keep, and the dismounted horse, though he gains on hi

all best pace is the best pace a horse can stay at for wind. If a common hack were started fresh for the

only just enough to keep his head straight and to regulate his pace, and trust the rest to his horse's honour. The horse should feel sufficiently commanded to know that he must go, and sufficiently at liberty to know that he may use all his capabilities. The body should not previously be thr

and expecting chastisement, the horse springs and struggles to avoid it before he has recovered his feet, and goes down with a tremendous impetus. If he has to cross a rut to the right he probably forces his horse across it when the right foot is on the ground. In this case, unless the horse collects himself and jumps-if he attempts to

foot over a precipice. This will become as easy to you as choosing your own path in walking. If your horse has made a false step, or is in difficulties, you cannot leave him too

pt to follow one another. This should not be. Your horse should be in perpetual obedience to the indications which your hands and legs give him, and to nothing else. These indications should not only decide the pace which he is to take,

single horse or a leader. The rein goes single from the driver's hand, and divides into two at the horse's neck. The driver, theref