he 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 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 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 _space of ground_ cleared by the feet,
but in the greater _space 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 h