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CHAPTER V 



HANDS AND SEAT 

 BY ROBERT WEIR 



THERE are few people who, after having had a mount a dozen 

 times in their lives, would not consider themselves very much 

 insulted on being told they had no hands, not to say anything 

 of the number of men one meets who have been mixed up with 

 horses all their lives, and are of course quite certain that their 

 hands are perfection. But before we say too much about 

 hands, there is something else to be obtained, viz., seat. No 

 man, or for that matter woman either, ever had or can have 

 good hands unless he or she has first acquired a firm indepen- 

 dent seat. There are, no doubt, scores of people who thoroughly 

 understand riding as far as they can be taught, and can ride a 

 quiet easy horse as well as could be wished, even if the horse 

 has not been well broken; but failure would be the result if you 

 asked the same person to ride another with a better mouth, 

 and altogether better trained, but which required a little more 

 sitting on. 



There are also, as is well known, many people who, although 

 they began to ride as children, and have been familiar with the 

 saddle all their lives, never get a good seat, not from want of 

 practice or from not taking an interest in riding, but simply from 

 nervousness. Others, again, who have taken to riding late in 

 life, after they have begun to get set and heavy, do not as a 

 rule obtain a good seat, not always from want of nerve (though 



