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

Standing on the stirrups.

Difference

between the

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.

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.

In galloping, the horse's legs catch the eye most when gallop and they are from under him, and he is drawn with all the leap.

four from under him. In truth, his

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.

chases un

horse.

Antæus was not peculiar in his dependence for strength Steepleon contact with his mother earth. In leaping, neither fair on the 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 assistance 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 assistance 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 finishing their race, he would have it hollow.

should not

horse at a

fence.

Woe to the sportsman who ambitiously attempts to lift The rider his horse mechanically over a fence on the principle dis- lift his cussed above; he is much more likely to throw him into it. He had better content himself with sitting quietly on his horse, holding him 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 thrown back, but as the