THE SADDLE-HORSE 55 



once told me how, at the instigation of his class-master, he 

 begged hard for many days to be allowed to ride the master's 

 favourite horse, with whom he was apt to join his higher 

 class. My friend flattered himself that he could manage any 

 horse, as he had long ridden under Baucher's instruction. As 

 an example to the class the master finally gave way. But the 

 experiment was short. My friend soon found that he was so 

 much less accomplished than the high-strung beast, that he was 

 utterly unable to manage or control him, much less to perform 

 any of the school airs, and he was by no means sorry when his 

 feat of equitation was terminated by so dangerous a rear that 

 Baucher deemed it wise to come to the rescue. My friend's 

 hands, though well drilled, were so much less delicate than 

 the horse's mouth, that the latter had at first mistaken some 

 peculiar unsteadiness as the indication for a pirouette, to which 

 he had obediently risen ; but then, on feeling some additional 

 unsteadiness of the reins, he had, in his uncertainty and con- 

 fusion, reared quite beyond control. Yet under the master the 

 horse's habit of obedience was so confirmed that he was ap- 

 parently as moderate as any courageous horse should be.' 



It thus appears that the school horse may be far too accom- 

 plished, and that if the rider's artistic progress be not propor- 

 tionate, mischief may ensue. It should be added, however, that 

 the theory of school riding is for every man to train his own 

 horse. That the art will ever again be generally practised in 

 England is extremely doubtful, though our ignorance of it may 

 earn the contempt of foreigners who make it their chief study 

 if they aspire to be horsemen. Those who deride may be in- 

 vited to come and see what they can do in the way of winning 

 a Liverpool Grand National. 



The perfect hack that is to say, what is commonly re- 

 cognised as such, for the school-rider will not, of course, admit 

 that a hack can approach perfection unless it has been trained 

 according to the theories of which Baucher was perhaps the 

 greatest of modern exponents bends readily and obediently 

 to his rider's hand, though his neck has never undergone the 



