MAKING A JUMPER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2883, 23 June 1909, Page 62

MAKING A JUMPER.

I At the back ©n-d of the flat racing esa- ' son recruits to hurdle-racing and steeple- ' chasing arc usually being put tbroug.h the schooling which it is hojwd will fit them to win honouis between the flags. This, of course, is the proper time to school a green fencer. The ground is soft, and that being so the result of a fall is £Ot lijcely to prove as serious as when the going-. is hard. Trainers csurmct go fax wrong in selecting the most suitable time : of the year for schooling .hecsos, because force of circumstances generally compele them to teave that part of the business until the flat-racing season is on the wane. The methods &<sopted in the attempt to convert the fiai-raeer into the timbertopper are, in many cases, by no means founded on these followed in Ireland, the home of the "lepper," or in England, where the practical experience of generation? of jTimting and steaplechasiag has been embodied in the volumes of B2<lmioton, or othor books treating largely with the subject. More than once the writer has seen the saddle clapped on a I flat-raoer, and then the horso (and, of ' course, the sad-die and its occupant) ' charged at a hurdle without any prelimi1 nary attempt made to teach the animal to hop over a bar or other small obstacle . in order to instil some idea in the equine's cranium that it is required to jump. In such a case resolute and strengthy horsej manship may result in the horse scrambling : over the hurdle, but at times— many times, i in fact — the horse can be galloped up to • the jurat), but never persuaded to rise and cut that graceful flight through the atmosphere made by a clever fencer when \ racing over the battens. The old saying :' about taking a horse to the trough without , persuading him to imbibo some of its contents applies with equal force to Lak- ( ing; the same animal at a fence. A horse ' from its foalhood days up to the time it is handled and taught to carry a rider, ] and ar more or less lucky intervals after- ,' wards, has every reason to believe that pc=ts and rails, hurdles, hedges, and ditches are simply means adopied by iran ' to confine his foui'-leggod friend in a moreor less confined area. When gambolling i as a foaJ cv g-allop-mg- as a young ho-reo j I the fence is regarded as a thus "far- ■ i and-no-farther" chsck to the exubsrance of ■ spirits which causes them _o cla=.h acrces ' the fields. A horse will tilt across a p^ad- } | deck, but stops d'2rul or swerves o.- oaHops down a fence without m-aking, or appar- ! ciwly dream of making, an atiempt to jump the boundary lins of his enclosure, unless he is that gift-d animal called a natural fenror. It fol'cnv-,, than, that if a hoi-fco ha* nc\er exhihited a natural inclination to jump it is also na'.ural that he will refills wh-sn ridden at a hurdle ■ without bping given some idea, more or ices carefully instilled, that he is required to clear the olsracle in his stride. Other-\v:-=ri why shouH heroes gallop up to a I hurdle and stop dead, despite the fact that { i he poor animal may he unmprciful.'y be- I iabourod by its schoolmaster in order to j hunt it across Ih° jump? This i« r-scog- | nieed by men experienced in the art of | ma king- a jumper. Such mjn teach a hcrae to jump &. rail whilst so'ira; from nacdock fc paddoe'e, or take great car--» in ec-hcolinsr them on a Hna over at first oas;.^ heights, and so on to driving them ! on the lons ivins ovrr :ho jump*. " When i a. ho:so exh.ibito a fair amount of c!-°vor- I up-* and tnclcrFfends whal Is required when be ins driven or lunecd ~l~ l a fence, then it is time to put up the rider. Frequently, hmv-eve.-, a hor?^ looking the beau ideal of a hurdler or 'charter r«aoonios absolutely vuined for raoinrr between the fia^e b»cau«o h:s education in that direction is c-.idpiy and itmorantlv iiiv',e, r iak<sn by peiwus who have never made a study of i the business.