INTRODUCTION 7 



in which he is put but it has always struck me that the reason 

 why so few cavalry privates have any hands at all on a horse is 

 on account of being taught on this system. To keep in the 

 saddle they must hold on by the horse's head, whereas I am 

 convinced that, if they were first taught to use the hand lightly,, 

 and to sit well in the saddle, and then after three months were 

 taught to ride on the blanket with only a snaffle watering bridle, 

 they would be better horsemen and have better hands on a horse. 

 Now a boy has not the same grip of a horse as a young man, 

 and I am most strongly of opinion that he should be instructed 

 to ride in a saddle and with stirrups. 



The first thing to impress on the boy is that he should sit 

 square to his front, and very upright without stiffness. Dif- 

 ferent ponies, like different horses, require to be ridden with 

 stirrups of different lengths. A long-actioned horse or pony, 

 very strong in his hind quarters, will need to be ridden with 

 stirrups a hole shorter than a quick-stepping, short-actioned 

 animal. But a good rule which is generally applicable is to 

 make the boy quit his stirrups, and then to put them at such a 

 length that the bottom of the stirrup just touches the ankle- 

 bone j then teach him to ride with the ball of his foot in the 

 stirrup and not to 'ride home,' which means not to thrust his 

 foot as far into the stirrup as he can. Above all things teach 

 him not to turn his feet out, and to sit as easily as possible. 

 The saddle should have no padding in front of the knees, and 

 the less padding there is under the flap the better. The rider, 

 with nothing between his legs and the horse's sides but the 

 leather flap, can sit much tighter and closer, and can grip his 

 horse much firmer, than he can if he has a quantity of stuff 

 under the flap between him and his horse. I strongly recom- 

 mend both for boys and men the perfectly plain-flapped saddle, 

 which gives so much more freedom to the rider's legs, and the 

 stuffless saddle invented by two first-class riders, Messrs. Mere- 

 dith Brown and William Harford. 



Having got both the girl and the boy into their saddles, we 

 now come to the handling of the bridle. Some people are 



