Hints on Horsemanship, to a Nephew and Niece Part 2

When the horse is in movement there should be a constant touch, or feeling, or play, or _bearing_ between his mouth and the rider's hands.

It is impossible to bestow too much pains and attention on the acquirement of this. It is the index of the horse's actions, temper, and _intentions_. It _forewarns_ the rider of what he is about to do, and by it the rider feels _muscularly_ without mental attention whether his horse requires more liberty or more collecting. And it is impossible that in this bearing on the horse's mouth, or in the indications of the hands and legs generally, or in shortening and lengthening the reins, the rider can be too delicate, gradual, smooth, firm, and light. The hands should be perfectly free from any approach to a jerk, a loose rein, or uneven feeling on the mouth. The legs should be kept from any action approaching to a kick, except when the spur is given; that should be always present, and when used should be given smartly and withdrawn instantly, but the pressure of the legs should be perfectly smooth and gradual, though, if necessary, strong.

If good riding is worth your attention do not think these things beneath your notice. For the acquirement of the bearing on the horse's mouth, the turning your horse on the proper rein, smoothness of indications, and, in shortening the reins, the power of making your horse collect himself, and the working together of your hands and legs, are the unseen and unappreciated foundation on which good riding stands. These, and not strength or violence, command the horse. With these your horse will rely on your hand, comply to it, and, without force on your part, he will bend to your hand in every articulation. Without these, however unintentionally on your part, you will be perpetually subjecting him to the severest torture, to defend himself against which he will resist your hand, poke his nose, and stiffen his neck, and every other part of his body. The horse can endure no greater torture than that resulting from an uneven hand. This is known to every hack-cabman. Every hack-cabman has hourly experience that a _job_ in the mouth will compel his jaded slave into a trot, when the solicitations of the whip have been long unanswered.

The single case in which a jerk in the mouth is admissible is when your horse is about to kick, and some one is within reach of his heels. The jerk causes him to throw up his head, and he cannot without difficulty raise his croupe at the same time. But except to save life or limb--supposing no one within reach--hold your hands high, and pull severely, but smoothly; do not jerk. This will in general be sufficient to prevent his kicking, but it is better that your horse should occasionally kick than that he should always go as stiff as a stake, which is the inevitable result of jerking.

[Sidenote: Collect the horse to turn.]

[Sidenote: Do not turn on one rein only.]

To keep the horse when in movement to a collected pace, the opposite indications of urging and retaining him must be continued. This working together of the hands and legs and the power of making the horse collect himself are also most essential in turning. A horse should never be turned without being made to collect himself--without being retained by the hands, and urged by the legs, as well as guided by both. That is, in turning to the right both hands should retain him, and the right guide him by being felt the strongest, both legs should urge him, and the left guide him by being pressed the strongest. The rider should also lean his weight to the right, and the shorter the turn and the quicker the pace, the more the horse should be made to collect himself, and the more both he and his rider should lean to the right. This is well seen, when a man standing on the saddle gallops round the circus. There the man must keep his position by balance alone, and were he not to lean inward--were he for a moment to stand perpendicularly, he would be thrown outside the circle by the centrifugal force. In turning suddenly and at a quick pace to the right, unless the rider leans his weight to the right, he will in like manner have a tendency to fall off on the left. If, by clasping his legs, he prevents this, his horse will be overbalanced to the left when turning to the right. It is bad, in turning to the right, to run into the contrary extreme to the one-handed system, and, slackening the left rein, to haul the horse's head round with the right rein only. The horse's head should not be pulled farther round than to allow the rider to see the right eye; both legs, and particularly the left leg, should then urge the horse to follow the guiding rein.

A lady, till very skilful, should ride with one bridle only at a time.

The other bridle should be knotted loosely, and should lie on the horse's neck.

[Sidenote: Lady's canter.]

The indications for a lady's horse to canter are an _over_ collection and a tapping on the mane with the whip; that is, take your reins _too_ short in the left hand, and tap the horse's mane till he canters. When off, if the reins _are_ too short, take one in each hand, turn the fore fingers towards you, and let the reins slip. If the horse goes freely up to your hand, keep a rein in each hand. If not, return the right rein to the left hand, and keep the whip ready to urge him up to his bit. If a lady has her reins at full length at a walk she should clutch, cross, canter. If the lady has her reins already crossed in the left hand at a walk, she should by two changes place them _too_ short in the left hand before she uses the whip.

[Sidenote: The quicker the pace the greater collection.]

[Sidenote: French and English mistake here.]

Every change of pace from slow to quick should be indicated to the horse by a greater collection; the "bride abattue," and the "reines flottantes" system is a great mistake. So is the direction to the English cavalry (quoted p. 6), to advance the little finger to make the horse advance. To make the horse advance the reins should be tightened; he should be made to collect himself, or he will advance in a loose and extended form.

On account of ease to the rider, a lady's horse is only permitted to canter with the right leg. He should never be cantered circles to left, or turned at a canter to the left, as unless the horse s.h.i.+fts his leg it will be an unfair exertion to ask of him. Cantering circles to the right, in open ground, where the horse has nothing to bias him but the indications he receives from the rider, is an admirable practice for a lady. An occasional race--who can canter slowest--is also good practice both for horse and rider. This must not be often repeated, nor must the horse be forced from a fair canter into a hobble or amble. Parade riders are too apt to be contented with wooden paces provided they are short.

This is very vicious. Really to collect himself, a horse must _bend_ himself. We cannot too often repeat Ovid's line,--

_Flect.i.tis_ aut freno _colla_ sequacis equi.

With horses obstinately addicted to the left leg, which is frequently a result of being longed only to the left, it is a good plan to canter them side-footed to the right, that is, on a level line, on the side of a hill which rises to the right. In this case a very slight slope will incline the horse to take his right leg, and on the side of a steep hill he can scarcely avoid it.

[Sidenote: The shy horse.]

There are three gradations in riding the shy horse. A man who pulls his horse's head towards what he expects him to shy at, and uses violence, _makes_ his horse shy. A man who leaves his horse's head entirely loose, _lets_ his horse shy. And a man who turns his horse's head from what he expects him to shy at, _prevents_ his horse from shying. Do not imagine that there will be any danger of the horse getting into trouble on the side opposite to what he s.h.i.+es at: the very contrary will be the case.

If, indeed, you pull his head towards the object of his alarm, and oblige him to face it, there is every probability that he will run blindly backward from it. And while his whole attention is fixed before him, he will go backward over Dover cliff if it chance to be behind him.

Under such circ.u.mstances you cannot too rapidly turn your horse's head and his attention from the fancied, to the substantial ill. But on common occasions the turning his head from what he s.h.i.+es at should be as gradual and imperceptible as possible. No chastis.e.m.e.nt should be allowed in any case. If he makes a start, you should endeavour not to make a _return_ start. You should not, indeed, take more notice of a shy than you can possibly avoid; and unless the horse has been previously brutalised, and to re-a.s.sure him, you should not even caress him, lest even that should make him suspect that something awful is about to happen. The common error is the reverse of all this. The common error is to pull the horse's head towards the object of his fear, and when he is facing it, to begin with whip and spur. Expecting to be crammed under the carriage-wheel, the horse probably rears or runs back into a ditch, or at least becomes more nervous and more riotous at every carriage that he meets. Horses are instantaneously made shy by this treatment, and as instantaneously cured by the converse of it. It is thus that all bad riders make all high-couraged horses shy, but none ever remain so in the hands of a good horseman.

[Sidenote: The restive horse.]

There is a common error, both in theory and practice, with regard to the restive horse. He is very apt to rear sideways against the nearest wall or paling. It is the common error to suppose that he does so with the view of rubbing his rider off. Do not give him credit for intellect sufficient to generate such a scheme. It is that when there, the common error is to pull his head _from_ the wall. This brings the rider's knee in contact with the wall, consequently all farther chastis.e.m.e.nt ceases; for were the rider to make his horse plunge, his knee would be crushed against the wall. The horse, finding this, probably thinks that it is the very thing desired, and remains there; at least he will always fly to a wall for shelter. Instead of _from_ the wall, pull his head towards it, so as to place his eye, instead of your knee, against it; continue to use the spur, and the horse will never go near a wall again.

[Sidenote: Truth may be paradoxical.]

To pull a horse _from_ what he s.h.i.+es at, and _towards_ the wall he rubs you against, are very paradoxical doctrines. But, ? ???? d????, the fable shows, that truth _may_ be paradoxical--that we _can_ blow hot and blow cold with the same breath; and it was only the brutal wild man of the woods who drove the civilised man from his den, for performing the feat.

CHAPTER IV.

MECHANICAL AID OF THE RIDER.

The rider cannot raise the falling horse.--Harm is done by the attempt.--The bearing rein.--Mechanical a.s.sistance of the jockey to his horse.--Standing on the stirrups.--Difference between the gallop and the leap.--Steeple-chases and hurdle-races unfair on the horse.--The rider should not attempt to lift his horse at a fence.

[Sidenote: The rider cannot raise the falling horse.]

There is no more common error than to believe that the rider can hold his horse up when he is falling. How often do we hear a man a.s.sert that his horse would have been down with him forty times if he had not held him up; that he has taken his horse up between his hands and legs and lifted him over a fence; or that he has recovered his horse on the other side!

These are vulgar errors, and mechanical impossibilities. Could ten men, with hand-spikes, lift the weight of a horse? Probably. Attach the weight to the thin rein of a lady's bridle. Could a lady lift it with the left hand? I think not; though it is commonly supposed that she could. 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 answer is, No, not if it can be explained how the senses are deceived. Otherwise, we should still believe, as, till some few centuries ago, the world did believe, that the diurnal motion was in the sun, and not in the earth. Otherwise we must subscribe to the philosophy of the Turk, who

"Saw with his own eyes the moon was round, Was also certain that the earth was square, Because he'd journey'd fifty miles and found No sign of its being circular anywhere."

[Sidenote: Harm is done by the attempt.]

But these errors are not harmless errors. They induce an ambitious interference with the horse at the moment in which he should be left unconfined to the use of his own energies. If by pulling, and giving him pain in the mouth, you force him to throw up his head and neck, you prevent his seeing how to foot out any unsafe ground, or where to take off at a fence, and in the case of stumbling you prevent an action practically dictated by nature and theoretically justified by philosophy. When an unmounted horse stumbles, nature teaches him to drop his head and neck; philosophy teaches us the reason of it. During the instant that his head and neck are dropping the shoulders are relieved 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 enc.u.mbered 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 a.s.sisting 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. Nor can it be employed on the foreign fulcrum, the ground, through the medium of your reins; as much as you pull up, so much you pull down. If a man in a boat uses an oar, he can accelerate or impede the motion of the boat, because his strength is employed through the medium of the oar on the water, which is a foreign fulcrum. But if he takes hold of the chain at the head of the boat, his whole strength will not accelerate or impede the motion of the boat, because there is neither foreign force nor foreign fulcrum. His whole strength is employed within the boat, and as much as he pulls backward with his hands, he pushes forward with his feet. The baker can lift his basket, but not when he is himself in it.

[Sidenote: Bearing-rein.]

All the arguments which I have heard adduced against the doctrine here laid down would also go to prove that a horse cannot fall which has a bearing-rein and a crupper, that is, whose head is tied to his tail. Sir Francis Head's observations on bearing-reins, in the "Bubbles of the Brunnen," are quite philosophical. They should only be used for purposes of parade, or to acquire greater power over a difficult _team_, or _loosely_ to keep cart-horses "out of mischief." Sir Francis's observations are also true of the harness used by the peasantry of Na.s.sau which he describes, but this arises from the poverty, not the philosophy of the peasants; those among them, who have money enough to buy smart harness have the most elaborate bearing-reins that I have ever seen. One, a chain, from the lower part of the collar, which binds the horse's chin 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 mouth the better, for the more you pull, the less you are at liberty to throw the weight back. But, in truth, it is of no advantage to throw the weight back when the stumble is made. If a position is previously taken up on the croupe of the horse, the pressure will be less on the fore-hand than if you were placed in a forward position. But during the time that the position is in the act of being s.h.i.+fted, that is, during the time that the horse is falling, the act of throwing your own weight back produces an exactly equivalent pressure forward, in all respects the counterpart of your own motion backward, in intensity and duration. It is useless to dwell on this subject, or to adduce the familiar ill.u.s.trations which it admits of. It is a simple proposition of mechanical equilibrium, and any one who is conversant with such subjects _must_ a.s.sent to it.

[Sidenote: Mechanical a.s.sistance of jockey.]

The question whether a jockey can mechanically a.s.sist his horse, does not rest on the same footing. I believe he can, thus. If a man sits astride of a chair, with his feet off the ground, and clasps the chair with his legs, by the muscular exertion of his lower limbs he can jump the chair along. The muscular force is there employed on the foreign fulcrum, the ground, through the medium of the legs of the chair. The muscular action strikes the chair downward and backward, and if the chair was on ice it would recede, so also would the feet of a horse in attempting to strike forward. If the chair was on soft ground, it would sink, so also would a horse, in proportion 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 to the muscular power exerted by the jockey, the muscular system of the horse would be relieved. At the same time no additional task is thrown on the bony frame of the horse, since, if the jockey had not used his muscular power on it in impelling his own weight, the muscular system of the horse must have been so employed. It is true, that not much is done after all with a prodigious exertion, but if that little gains six inches in a hardly contested race it may make the difference of its being lost or won. Thus an easy race is no exertion to a jockey, but after a hardly contested one, he returns with his lips parched, his tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth, and every muscle quivering.

The working a horse up with both hands on his mouth is easier to the jockey than using the whip, and more effective in rousing the horse to his greatest exertion.

[Sidenote: Standing on the stirrups.]

What is called "standing on the stirrups" consists chiefly in bringing the weight forward on to both thighs. In this position the rider has a greater power of adjusting the balance of his weight to the movements of his horse. In racing it is practically proved to be _essential_. And it is of infinite service to the horse in the long and severe galloping of hunting.

It is surprising that the English are the only people who rise in the stirrup at a trot; it is not surprising that other nations are beginning to follow their example.

[Sidenote: Difference between the gallop and the leap.]

In galloping, the horse's legs catch the eye most when they are from under him, and he is drawn with all four from under him. In truth, his hind legs are under him when his fore legs are from under him, and his fore legs are under him when his hind legs are from under him; his hind feet pa.s.s over where his fore feet rested, so that from footprint to footprint he clears very little _s.p.a.ce_. 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 that the greatest distance from footprint to footprint is not nearly half his stroke. The leap differs from the gallop not only in the greater _s.p.a.ce of ground_ cleared by the feet, but in the greater _s.p.a.ce of time_ for which the feet quit the ground; this last difference is of more importance than might be imagined.

[Sidenote: Steeple-chases unfair on the horse.]

Antaeus was not peculiar in his dependence for strength on contact with his mother earth. In leaping, neither man nor horse can draw breath while in the air, that is, from the time the 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 to draw breath when off the ground is the reason of the death of horses in steeple-chasing and hurdle-racing; they die of suffocation. The reason is a sufficient one for the discontinuance of such racing and chasing.

A mounted horse will overtake a dismounted horse, his superior in speed.

It is the common error to suppose that this results from the mechanical a.s.sistance of the rider. The real reason is, that the dismounted horse goes off, like an inexperienced jockey, at his utmost speed. I do not believe that 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 him at first, _comes back to him_ as the jockeys say: for a horse which has been distressed for wind in the first hundred yards, will not arrive at the end of a mile nearly so soon as if he had gone the whole at the best pace he could stay at. Here the a.s.sistance from the rider is mental not mechanical.

When mounted it never happens to any horse but an arab or a barb to go his best _muscular_ pace. What we call best pace is the best pace a horse can stay at for _wind_. If a common hack were started fresh for the last hundred yards against the best horses in England when finis.h.i.+ng their race, he would have it hollow.

[Sidenote: The rider should not lift his horse at a fence.]