94 RIDING 



legs are simply reversed, substituting left for right and right for 

 left, the whip being carried in the other hand. 



. It will, as a rule, be found that when the horse once takes to 

 stepping away from the pressure of the outward leg by circling the 

 croup round, he will be inclined to hurry away from it, in which 

 case he will not do so much good. He should therefore be kept 

 up to the hand by the inward leg, and always be halted for a mo- 

 ment when half-way about. If the turn about on the forehand 

 be correctly made, the inward forefoot should not be lifted from 

 the ground, and the bend should not be changed till he has com- 

 pleted the turn about ; in fact, he should see his croup circling 

 round, but of course it is not to be reasonably expected that 

 this will be done quite correctly the first few times of trying. 

 In turning right about on the haunches the hind quarters are 

 stayed by the right leg and the forehand circled round by the 

 right rein, but the rider will here have to be very careful not to 

 feel the right rein too strongly, as if he does so the horse is very 

 likely to run back instead of circling his forehand round ; the 

 left leg should be closed strongly, enough to prevent the horse 

 from throwing his quarters to the left, and a light feeling of the 

 left rein should be retained. At first the left hand should be 

 raised and the pressure of the left rein against the horse's neck 

 may be of some assistance, but this should be dispensed with 

 after the first few times or as soon as the horse has got to under- 

 stand what is meant. The right leg may here be drawn back a 

 little in steadying the hind quarters, the animal's inward hind 

 foot should not be picked up during the turn, and the bend 

 should be kept to the right, halting him when half-way about as 

 when turning on the forehand. Great patience is required 

 from the rider in teaching his horse during this lesson, and he 

 should not keep on turning him about so as to disgust him 

 with the movement, even if he does not take it up very well, 

 but let him go to his front, trot him a few times round the 

 house, halt, make much of him, and then have another try. 



Having got the horse to turn about fairly well on the fore- 

 hand and haunches, he may next be tried a few steps in ' shoulder 



