120 RIDING 



advisable to miss a day's work in the school now and then, and 

 take him outside instead. It stands to reason that it is better 

 for the health of the horse to take his exercise out in the air 

 sometimes, and he is not so liable to get disgusted, for it must 

 grow rather monotonous for a horse, during the whole time he 

 is being broken, to be simply taken from the stable to the 

 school, and after his lesson back to the stable again. Of 

 course every one has not the advantage of a school to begin 

 working young horses in, and there are, as is well known, 

 many very well broken horses that have never been inside one 

 in their lives ; but it does not follow that the school is not the 

 best place, so long as they get a certain amount of outdoor 

 work as well, although people who ought to know better say 

 that they would rather be without one. Those same people, 

 when they have tried to break a horse themselves out of doors, 

 and have not only failed to do so, but got the animal to such a 

 pitch that they could not ride him a hundred yards without 

 getting some one to lead him, when in fact they have found the 

 horse getting more the* master every day, generally send him 

 to a school, and are then considerably disappointed if the horse 

 is not turned out to their satisfaction. It is not here asserted 

 that this horse or that horse cannot be broken without a school 

 if he is in good hands, but it is unquestionably harder to redeem 

 a failure than to begin at the beginning. No horse is so bad 

 to break as the one that has been made a fool of by some 

 person who had not the knowledge or patience to teach him. 

 Even when such a one is sent to the school, and is there well 

 and patiently ridden for some time by an experienced horseman, 

 he rarely if ever turns out so well as those that begin their 

 education in the school, in the hands of some one who 

 thoroughly understands his business. But this is rather getting 

 away from the subject of riding the horse out of doors. 



Young horses, on being first taken out, are naturally dis- 

 posed to look about them, and their attention is in consequence 

 to a certain extent taken off their riders. So long as they go 

 fairly well to their front, it is as well to satisfy their curiosity. 



