le, and be ready to lean well back as he is landing over it.
If a lady is riding with her reins too short, and the horse, in jumping,
makes a sudden snatch to get more rein, she should at once let them slip
through her fingers, and learn, from that experience, to ride with the
reins sufficiently long to enable her to have an easy feel of her
horse's mouth, without in any way hanging on to his head. Some
inexperienced ladies get alarmed when a horse is about to take off, and
check him with the reins, which is a most dangerous proceeding. I have
known the safest of jumpers pulled into their fences and caused to fall
by the adoption of such tactics. A lady should remember that when her
mount is going straight for a fence, with the intention of getting
safely to the other side, any interference on her part will cause him to
either blunder badly, or, if the jump is a fixture, to fall. If a horse
slackens speed when near a fence, and suddenly runs out, his rider
should let him refuse and take him at it again. I once got a very bad
fall through turning a horse quickly at a fence which he was in the act
of refusing. We were close to the jump, he had no time to take off
properly, so he breasted the obstacle, a stiff timber jump, and
blundered on to his head. That taught me a salutary lesson, and
therefore I would warn all ladies to let their horses run out when the
animals have taken the first step in the wrong direction, as it is then
too late to keep them straight with safety, and a sudden turn, with the
object of trying to do so, is very apt to make a horse blunder.

When a touch with the whip is given to remind a horse that he has to
clear a big ditch on the landing side, or when riding at timber, it
should be used on the off flank by a turn of the wrist, but without
jerking the reins. The whip, as I have before remarked, should be
employed as an aid and not as a means of inflicting pain. A lady should
not bustle her horse at his fences, except perhaps at water, for every
horse has his own pace at which he prefers to jump, and the clever sort
will always manage to put in a short stride, or take a longer one at the
last moment, if they find that the strides they are using will not bring
them up to the correct spot from which to take off. In hunting, the
fences are generally taken at a canter, and the pace is increased in
galloping over the open ground. Horses are thus what is called
"steadied" at their fences, but the pull sho