To the Editor of the "NortH-Cuiwa Dai News"
Sik,—Coincident with the announcement that a jumping gymkhana will Abe held on March 27 comes the news that the German "win riding events at Geneva by huge margin.
After witnessing their outstanding performances in jumping contests at London Olympia in 1935 I commented on them in this paper on my return to Shanghai. These comments were "taken. cum grano salis. However, at the subsequent Berlin Olympiad the home team swept "the board so thoroughly that they Were justified. Again, later, Comte clu Rivau, himself a winner of the King George V
Cup at Olympia on a former occasion, confirmed this opinion after witness. ing what he considered their insur: passable performances in Paris in 1997, And now we read of what is termed another "brilliant victal day. Surely there is a reason, horseflesh, for this unbroken line of international successes.
"When referring to their uniform style in my remarks some three years ago, I noted that, individually and collectively, their representatives assumed and maintained a scientific or mathematical form of balance which, in results, appeared to place the burden of the rider's weight in that position on the horse where it handicapped movement and efforts to the least degree possible. Furthermore, if any movement of this burden became necessary, it was made in exact synchronization with that of the horse, thereby assisting him rather than impeding him as was the case with the competitors whose necessary movements were ill-timed and therefore more against their mounts than with them. A lack of ce-ordination, in fact, which instantly placed them outside the "champion" class, to attain which perfect timing is admitted to be one of the highest essentials in all branches of athletic competition. And. being so, how very urgent must it be where two are concerned—the man and the mount-when the slightest error on the part of the former. may entirely offset the gallant efforts of the latter Of course there is a scientific "form" to be acquired in order to develop the capacity to reach these heights of perfection, and it will be interesting to observe whether, at the forthcoming gymkhana, the instructors of the "academy" at which it is to be held will prove their advertised claim to be able to teach the correct method of controlling the horse by means of a "perfect seat."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.