HANDS AND SEAT 135 



or something else quite as trivial occurred to startle his horse, in 

 nineteen cases out of twenty the first thing he would do would 

 be to scramble his reins up short, and hold on to his horse's 

 mouth. The other I have mentioned, who is stiff, and does 

 not accompany his horse in all his movements, is also certain 

 to depend more or less on his horse's mouth to keep him in the 

 saddle. Now each of these may get on very well on a certain 

 class of horse, that, in fact, to which they are used, but neither 

 of them is possessed of the firm independent seat which is 

 indispensable for good hands. 



On the other hand, there is many a man who can stick on 

 like a leech, who has nerves like steel, but who would never- 

 theless be more likely to spoil a well broken horse than either 

 of those with bad or indifferent seats. Such a rider would turn 

 any well-disposed high-couraged young horse that might be 

 given into his hands into a sulky brute, or a nervous wretch 

 not fit to ride. The class of horsemen here referred to and 

 there are many such fancy that they are as strong as the horse 

 because they find themselves able to sit on his back better than 

 most people. Everything they require from the horse is de- 

 manded by brute force, and the poor beast is often driven to 

 attempt things to which his strength is quite unequal. Such 

 men have not the patience or common sense to know that the 

 horse requires to be shown what to do, and must have time 

 in which to learn to do it ; they think it a grand thing 

 to bully the horse, and of course confuse instead of teach- 

 ing him. 



Take another instance of a man with a seat and nerve as 

 good as the bully last mentioned, but of a different disposition. 

 He very likely never ill-used a horse in his life, and would, 

 perhaps, be the first to condemn ill-usage, but on the other 

 hand, so long as he sits on the horse's back and gets him to go 

 pretty nearly where he wants him to, he never minds in what 

 sort of form the work is done. 



If he took the trouble, this man might make himself hands, 

 but the fact remains that he has ridden for years with his reins 



