IN THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 93 



" To make a volte you have only to turn to 

 the right and to keep turning, going steadily 

 away from the wall until opposite your starting 

 point, and then regaining it by a half-circle. 

 Making voltes is not only a useful exercise, 

 showing your horse. that you really mean to 

 guide him, and teaching you to execute a move- 

 ment steadily, but it affords an excellent way 

 of diverting the horse's attention from the mis- 

 chief which Satan is always ready to find for 

 idle hoofs. Give him a few voltes and he for- 

 gets his plans for setting off at a canter. Do 

 you understand ? Very well. When you are 

 half-way down the school try to make a volte. 

 I will give you no order. Your horse would 

 understand if I did, and would begin the move- 

 ment himself, and you should do it unaided." 



You try the volte, and convince yourself that 

 the geometry master who taught you that a 

 circle was a polygon with an infinite number 

 of sides was more exact and less poetical than 

 you thought him in the days before the riding- 

 school began to reform your judgment on many 

 things. You are conscious of not making a 

 respectable curve in return, and you draw a 



