392 THE HORSE 



acquaintances whom he sees enjoying what he is rejecting. 

 If he has been well taught at the commencement he will be 

 very differently situated to what he would be if he had never 

 learned at all, for he will take up riding again where he left 

 off; and in seat and hands he may soon even display 

 superiority to those who have kept steadily on, but who have 

 been allowed to pick up riding as best they could, and are 

 sure to have acquired many little faults. 



Stirrups. 



To most grooms it seems a never-ending puzzle that their 

 master alters the length of his stirrups with almost every 

 different horse he rides ! He never dreams of doing so him- 

 self, unless he is a finished rider, which so few of the class 

 ever seem to become. Fat horses or thin, narrow or broad, 

 one length of the stirrup suffices for the groom, and there- 

 fore he does not attain accuracy of balance and perfect 

 hands, although he may be able to retain his seat, regardless 

 of plunges, and to steer an animal with the mouth of a bull. 



One of the commonest faults of position is the thrusting 

 of the feet too forward, which entails a defective balance, 

 and a grotesque struggle to maintain it if the horse should 

 suddenly rear-up straight on end, whip suddenly round,. or, 

 thrusting its head between its legs, indulge in a series of 

 bucking antics. No horse-breaker, accustomed to the 

 vagaries of bad-tempered and youthful animals, will be 

 found to sit in such a position — and yet how often it will be 

 seen amongst the riders in an ordinary hunting-field ! The 

 feet should be so drawn back that the ankles are under the 

 knees, the grip being maintained by grasping the saddle 

 with the prominent bony part of the inside of the knees, and 

 then whatever the horse does the rider will sway with it, as 

 if both were carved out of one block. The part between the 

 upper calf and the knee will then take its full share of the 

 work, and the saddle will be gripped as if in a vice. A con- 

 siderable portion of the weight of the body should rest upon 

 the thighs, and not, as is so often seen, entirely upon the 

 buttocks. A fine rider should be able to place a sixpence 



