INTRODUCTION 9 



handicapped, sitting entirely on one side of a horse, but by 

 using her left leg on the near side, and by a dexterous use of 

 the whip, very gently applied, on the off, she can to a great 

 extent make up for the disadvantage of having no right leg to 

 apply to that side. 



There is a point of considerable importance in the teaching 

 young girls to ride on which we must touch. There is no 

 doubt that if they ride daily and for long hours, and always 

 ride on the near side of their ponies, it will not improbably 

 result that the right hip will get higher than the left one. No 

 doubt that it is less comfortable for a lady to sit on the off 

 than on the near side of a horse. Custom and habit, however, 

 reconcile people to many strange things, and young ladies may 

 be recommended to acquire the art of riding as well on one 

 side as on the other. I could name one family of ladies, all 

 celebrated horsewomen over a country, on Newmarket Heath, 

 or in Rotten Row, equally well known and admired as the best 

 specimens of English horsewomen, who certainly up to eighteen 

 years of age, if not later, used to ride alternately on the one side 

 or the other. I allude to the aunts of the present Earl of Craven, 

 Lady Elizabeth, Dowager Countess of Wilton, Lady Evelyn 

 Riddell, Lady Blanche, Countess of Coventry, Lady Beatrix, 

 Countess of Cadogan, and Lady Emily Vande Weyer ; all of 

 them sit straight and well on their horses, and all were brought 

 up to ride equally well on either side. I have no doubt that 

 learning to ride on both sides tends to prevent the habit of 

 getting the right shoulder forward, and as a consequence facili- 

 tates the sitting perfectly square, which is such an essential 

 feature of perfect horsemanship in a lady. It also prevents the 

 medical attendant (if by chance he is rot a fox-hunter, which 

 most country doctors are) of the family from frightening mothers 

 by saying that young girls who ride much may grow up crooked. 



Whilst on the subject of hands it would be as well to make 

 some remarks upon horses' mouths. Ninety-nine out of 

 every hundred men have bad hands of various degrees, and I 

 know several ladies similarly afflicted. Those bad hands are 



