The horse and the hound, by Nimrod by Nimrod

Author:Nimrod
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 1842-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

The seat of the jockey may be described in a few worda. He shonld sit well down io his saddle when he walks his hotse to the post, with his stir-raps of moderate length, so as to enable him to clear his pnmmel, and have a good resisting power OTer his horse. No man can make thn most of a race-horse with long stinup leathers, becaose, wbea he is going at the top of his speed, he sinks down in hia fore-qoarten, in his stride, to the extent of several inches. It was calculated that Eclipse, naturally a low fore-qnartered horse, sank nearly eight inches. The circumstance, then, of the use of the stirrup, in ancient racing, being unknown, fully accounts for racing on horseback, as we now race, being, comparatively with chariot-racing, but little resorted to; and the excellency of a jockey in the

Olympic Hippodrome, consisting more in a sort of harlequin feat of jumping from one horse, and vaulting upon another, in a race, than riding* and finishing it, as it is now finished, in a severe trial of speed, bottom, and jockeyship. Indeed, some racers go with their heads so low as to bear up their rider from the saddle whether he will or not, and they would pull him over their heads, if he had not the power of resistance from his stirrups. Much nonsense was written by the late Samuel Chifney, in a pamphlet called Genius Oenuine^ on riding the race-horse with a dack rein, which system, although we by no means approve of a hajrd, dead hand upon any horse, we are convinced can never be put into practice with advantage to either the horse or his rider. Exclusive of the necessity of restraining a free horse, who would run himself to a stand-still, if suffered to do so, or, in making what is called a waiting race, all race-horses feel themselves relieved by a strong pull at their heads, and many will nearly stop, or, at all events, very much slacken their pace, on finding their heads loose. In our opinion, the hand of a jockey on his horse should always be firm, though at times delicate to an extreme; and he should never surprise or disturb the mouth of his horse, in his race, by any sudden transition from a slack to a tight, or from a tight to a slack rein. In fiust, every thing in horsemanship is best done by degrees, but at the same time with a firmness and resolution which a horse well understands; and the hand which, by giving and taking, as the term is, gains its point

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