The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-20
TOD sLOAN,s JOCKEYsHIP.
snapper" Garrison the First to Use
the New Style of Riding.
Buffalo Courier-Record,


L e il gs of e Anne lean j0ckey, James,
better known Tod Sloan, on the English
turf, have caused a flood of criticisms and
counter criticisms on the respective styles
ard abilities of English and American jock
eys. The entire subject is misunderstood
by the general public, because those who
have had no opportunity to watch the diff
ference for themselves cannot realize the
extreme variance of the styles.
To enumerate the points involved one
must begin with the remark that whereas
an English jockey rides like any ordinary
rider the American jockey has evolved a
method that is perfectly out of the question
hold is with his calves. 1t is scarcely too
much to say that there is no grip whatever
on the saddle afforded by the thigh and
knee in the cases of the Jockeys who like
Sloan, have followed the school inaugur-
ated by Snapper Garrison. The American
takes very short hold of his horses head,
catching the reins in strong wrap, often
double. and, throwing himself forward till
his body is almost parallel with the horses
neck, has his hands quite close to the bit.
In this country it has become the fashion
to place the racing saddle much more for
ward than in England, so that the pommel
is almost at the point of the horses withers
This, of course, aids in throwing the jockey
forward till he appears to be actually on
the horses neck AS is natural in the ac-
been gradually shortened till. in the case
of some of those jockeys that come from
the West. the boys thigh is almost hori-
zontal when he is sitting on the horse at
rest
1t is not the case that we are without ex-
ponents of the English method AS already
intimated, the style that Sloan has pushed
to it's utmost limit is modern. Garrison
used to be laughed at because he climbed
on to his horses neck" and once Spurred
Firenze on line with her hip but the eX-
ample he set was efficacious, because, like
Sloan he used to win many races. OF the
Jockeys riding to-day Bergen is the best
example of the English method. but it was
followed, virtually without modification by
William Hayward, Slipman. Fitzpatrick
Mclaughlin and others of our famous
jockeys.
In riding in English fashion the stirrups
are far longer-Willie Sims let his down
fully three holes after seeing the riding on
the other side of the Atlantic. The jockey
sits down and back; in other words. vir-
tually straight up in the saddle. He grips
his mount with the inside of his knee joint
which acts a pivot. enabling the lower
part of the leg to swing backward and in
ward when the jockey wants to his
spurs, hitting the horse in the right place.
on the ribs. just back of the girth. The
reins are held in the ordinary fashion, with
out wraps and without the dangerous knot
ting of the reins. The weight of the rider
is centered just back of the shoulders, and
the knee grip renders the Jockey neceSSar-
lily less dependent on balance and more
capable of helping a stumbling horse than
in jockey of Sloan's style. The lack of
grip in less competent boys also causes
them to use the reins to q great extent to
hang on by. rather than for the proper
purpose, of directing and controlling the
horse.