Donald Walker

“ Now, however, this clumsy-barrelled, cloddy-shouldered, round-legged animal, something between a coach and a dray horse, as fat as an ox, and, with all his prancing at first starting, not capable of more than six miles an hour, and rendered useless by a day’s hard work, is no more seen; and, instead of him, we find a horse as tall, deep-chested, rising in the withers, slanting in the shoulders, flat in the legs, with more strength, and with treble the speed. ”

“ The general art of riding, sometimes called manège riding, to distinguish it from its modifications in road-riding, hunting, racing, &c., teaches us to place every part of the body so that it can act upon the horse in every emergency, shows the effect of all the aids or modes of guiding him, and enables us to render him obedient to the slightest touch. By never suffering the ascendancy to be transferred to the horse, by in general preventing him from making all his speed, and by exhausting him the sooner the more he exerts himself without permission, it bestows upon the rider perfect security. ”

“ As a general rule, however, it may as well be said here as elsewhere that, in brook-jumping, pace comes first and then judgment. With a powerful impetus you get over; should your horse blunder, somehow—if with a fall at the other side, no matter: less speed enables you to pick your ground better, but it throws all the odds on the side of a cold-bath, should the span be wider than you calculated on, or the bank be soft, and let you in. ”

“ If the former, it is sometimes attended with danger: thus, a wheeler throws up his head, suddenly and powerfully shortens the rein of the leader, who is checked, and as the wheeler goes on, he brings the bar with force against the hocks of the leader, which instantly flies forward, and mischief ensues.
This, perhaps, does not last long; but one evil only takes the place of another: leaders soon learn to be, from custom, equally heedless of this check and of their driver’s hand: and their mouths become steeled by the constant tossing of the wheeler’s heads. ”

“ I would not have it supposed that I claim for the chase a higher station for enterprise than any other of the adventurous occupations in which we find mankind employed. It would be absurd for an instant, for example, to compare it with that most exciting and magnificent of all the daring offices to which man has ever addressed himself—the South Sea fishing. But as a sport,—an act to which pleasure alone induces him, fox-hunting has nothing at all bearing comparison with it in modern days. ”

“ The generality of passengers know not the danger of galloping a coach, with three tons’ weight in and out, down hill, at the rate of twelve or fifteen miles an hour, with no wheel locked, the whole resistance of the wheel-horses depending on a small leather strap and buckle at the top of the hames,—these coachmen deeming it beneath their dignity to drive with breechings. ”

“ There are few things in which knowledge of an art without execution is of less value than in driving four-in-hand; for, although a coachman may have knowledge, it is possible that, from natural awkwardness, he may be unable to put it into practical effect with a neat and appropriate movement of his arms and hands; and seldom is a certain propriety and neatness more required than in handling the reins and whip. To make a man a good driver, there is one requisite, and that is, what are called on the roads “hands”—a nice faculty of touch. ”

“ The time of the moderate pace is, as it were, filled up by the more complicated process of the step—by the gradual and easy breaking of the descent of the foot on its outer edge, or the ball of the little toe, by the deliberate positing of the foot, by its equally gradual and easy projection from its inner edge, or the ball of the great toe. The quick pace, if its time be lengthened, has no such filling up: the man stumps at once down on his heel, and could rise instantly from his sole, but finds that, to fill up his time, he must pause an instant ”

“ As a race, when opposed to the indigenous horse of any quarter of the earth, the English thorough-blood is universally victorious; among the various families into which it is divided at home, no constant succession of superiority has ever discovered itself.
I am aware that those who only take a superficial view of the economy of our racing system will at once pronounce against this position. They will adduce the sons and daughters of King Herod, Eclipse, and Highflyer; in our day, of Sultan and Emilius, as far surpassing the ordinary run of their contemporaries. ”

“ When passion possesses the rider, it prevents that concord and unity taking place which ever should subsist between the rider and his horse. He should always be disposed to amity, and never suffer the most obstinate resistance of the horse to put him out of temper. If the contest does not demand his utmost exertion of strength, he should be able to hum a tune, or converse with the same composure and indifference as though his horse were all obedience. ”

“ Whether the cause of morality is served by horse-racing, it is not our province to inquire. An inelegant but most apropos salt-water axiom says, “every man to his post, and the cook to the fore-sheet.” Mankind, since the creation, has set its face against all work and no play, and will do so to the end of the chapter. We are of the disciples of Democritus; and, feeling in the vein, will just touch in here, merely in outline, a faint sketch of a Derby Day. ”

“ It is a mistake, however, that fleshy horses cannot go fast in harness; they are more powerful in draught than thin ones; and, having only themselves to carry, flesh does not injure their legs, as in riding. In a fast coach, then, a horse ought not to work more than four days without rest, as he becomes leg-weary, and wears out the sooner; and he becomes also too highly excited. A horse a mile, reckoning only one side of the ground, is about the proportion. Thus we may suppose that ten horses work the coach up and down a ten-mile stage, which gives eight at work, and two at rest. ”

“ The slight inclination of the body permitted in road riding must not occasion any roundness in the back, which is invariably to be hollow, not only for appearance sake but for safety. The action of the body likewise must not cause the legs to move or press the horse, which might cause him to gallop. In trotting, the rider must pay the greatest attention to correct every propensity to lift, hitch, overrate, or gallop; and, whenever he feels these propensities, he must check them with the greatest nicety, in order not to retard the horse’s speed. ”

“ When the stop is properly performed, it shows the great superiority of the rider’s hand over the horse. It confirms him in obedience, unites him, supples the haunches, and bends the houghs. Much mischief, however, may occur from a too frequent or injudicious practice of it. The perfection of the stop consists in the action ceasing at the finish of a cadence, without breaking the previous time; and in the horse being so balanced on his haunches, and so animated, that, with liberty given, he can advance with the same rapidity as before. ”

“ You have two hills to go down, and three to go up, in the first seven miles. Don’t stop to put the chain on, as they’ll hold well, and the tackle is good; and don’t let them walk up the hills, for they are bad hands at that—you will lose a horse’s draught by it, and perhaps get hung up on one of them. You must take fifty minutes to do the first seven miles, and good work too. When you get at the top of the last hill, get down and put your near leader to the cheek, and they’ll toddle you over the last five miles in half an hour, with all the pleasure alive. ”

“ Now, what is our method? ‘In order to break-in the animal to draught, we put a collar round his neck, a crupper under his tail, a pad on his back, a strap round his belly, with traces at his sides; and, lest he should see that, though these things tickle and pinch, they have not power to do more, the poor intelligent creature is blinded with blinkers, and in this fearful state of ignorance, with a groom or two at his head, and another at his side, he is, without his knowledge, fixed to the pole and splinter-bar of a carriage. ”

“ A runner, after performing a certain space, is seized with a difficulty of breathing, long before the repetition of the contractions has produced fatigue in the abdominal members. To excel, therefore, in running, requires, like walking and dancing, a peculiar exercise. As the muscular contractions depend, for their principle of excitement, on the respiration, the chest should be firmly fixed, so as both to facilitate this, and to serve as a point of support for the efforts of the lower members. The best runners are those who have the best wind, and keep the breast dilated for the longest time. ”

“ In performance, if the rider do not support the horse sufficiently, his head will be low, and his walk slovenly: if he support him too much, he will shorten his step so that he cannot walk freely. If the rider do not animate him, he will not exert himself: if he animate him too much, he will trot. If the horse trot when the rider designs him to walk, he will find either his hand or the degree of animation communicated by the whip, tongue, legs, or bracing of the body, too high, and this he must instantly modify, as well as check the horse. ”

“ The first effort of locomotion—the walk, without it, possesses neither force nor decision: in the same ratio that a higher degree of muscular exertion is demanded, increases the value and importance of the art which teaches how best to apply the vital energies to its service. What a wise economy is to the social, this art is to the physical system: both serve to augment our resources, by instructing us so to husband them that the term “necessity” be not known to our vocabulary. ”

“ For all these reasons, though the impetus given by the fall of the body into water occasions its sinking to a depth proportioned to the force of the descent, its natural buoyancy soon impels it again to the surface, where, after a few oscillations up and down, it settles with the head free.
Unfortunately, ignorant people stretch the arms out to grasp at anything or nothing, and thereby keep the head under; for the arms and head, together exceeding in weight one-tenth of the body, cannot remain above the surface at the same time. ”

“ Suppose, for instance, you have had a burst with your fox, and he has reached a large cover, in which there are strong earths, or beyond which lies a country too open for a blown fox to set his head for. If the earths are open, in he goes, and there is an end of him; if stopped, he turns, or leans to the right or left. During this time, brief as it maybe, you have eased your horse; he gets his wind (a minute, in many cases, will put him right after a very quick thing) , and you are fresh, while your hard rider has been going best pace beyond the hounds, and comes toiling after you in vain. ”

“ Without it your difficulty becomes almost an impossibility, and that is the time when over-riding, more fatal than all other obstacles put together, is to be seen in its superlative degree. There is your hard-rider, par excellence, who will be first: the leader pulls up at a check—the nuisance passes him, even with hounds at fault, without a moment’s care for the mischief he must do the chase, or what he may do himself. ”

“ It has been well said by my talented friend, Nimrod, that all the writing in the world will not make a sportsman. The pen of Pindar, and the pencil of Grant, indeed, exhibit him in all perfection to our admiration; but, could they both write for the education of the student whose ambition is Olympic fame, they would not insure success. Like the poet, he must be born, in a manner, to his cunning. ”

“ A loaded coach should never be turned short, even at a slow pace, for the coach is never safe when there is not an even bearing on the transom beds. If turned short, at a quick pace, the higher and looser part of a coach must go over, because all bodies put in motion by one power will proceed in a straight line, unless compelled to change their course by some force impressed. Hence a horse at full speed is with difficulty turned to right or left; and, if he turn suddenly, and of his own accord, he puts his rider’s horsemanship to the test. ”

“ In riding up to a leap, the rider should yield the bridle to the horse, guiding him straight to the bar at an animated pace; halt him with a light hand, and upon his haunches; when he rises, only feel the reins to prevent their becoming slack; when he springs forward, yield the hand without reserve; and, when his hind feet come to the ground, again firmly collect him, resume his usual position, and move on at the former pace. If the horse be too much collected previous to his leap, he will bound, or buck over, as it is called. ”

“ They draw together for the start—infinitely the most influential point in the great game to be played. Here all is confusion worse confounded: the multitude opens its thousand throats of brass; the steeds are frantic; the jockeys (born and bred devils from their cradle) practise every conceivable stratagem ever hatched in Fiendom; and there stands one nervous old man to front the pitiless pelting, and produce from such materials a result with which all are to be satisfied. ”

“ When a wheel-horse has the habit of throwing up his head, which greatly annoys the mouth of the leader before him, a nose-martingale should be used. This, however, is rarely sufficient. Indeed, it is a bad custom to run the leader’s reins through terrets over the heads of the wheelers; for then every movement which the wheelers make with their heads, acts powerfully on the mouths of the leaders, whether they be good or bad. ”

“ Let any one observe a pair of English post-horses dragging a heavy weight up a hill, and he will at once see that the poor creatures are working by their muscles, and that it is by sheer strength that the resistance is overcome: but how can it be otherwise; their heads are higher than nature intended them to be, even in walking in a state of liberty, carrying no weight but themselves: the balance of their bodies is therefore absolutely turned against, instead of leaning in favour of their draught ”

“ There are some days (those which invariably carry the best scent) when hounds will find, and fly away like magic, not one in the pack attempting to throw tongue. Here, if the cover be large, unless you have them in your eye, the odds are you never get away; and see what you lose—the excellence of the scent has stopped the cry: the faster hounds go, the less they say about it. ”

“ As the position of the person in the act of skating is never vertical, and is sometimes very much inclined, and as considerable exertion of the muscles of the leg is requisite to keep the ankle stiff, this ought to be relieved by the lowness of the skates. Seeing, then, that the closer the foot is to the ice, the less is the strain on the ankle, it is clear that the foot ought to be brought as near to the ice as possible, without danger of bringing the sole of the shoe in contact with it, while traversing on the edge of the skate. ”

“ It is a rule always to put the freest leader on the near side, as he is better in hand than on the other. If a leader be weak, and cannot take his bar, the wheeler that follows him must be tied up, and this will place him by the side of his partner. Leaders should be fast trotters for fast coaches; for, if they gallop, the bars are never at rest, and consequently much of the draught is lost in the angles described. To a coach-horse in fast work, wind is almost as essential as to a hunter. Many high-blowers, however, keep their time very well, with a little attention on the part of the driver. ”