384 RIDING 



short time should be devoted first to going through what he 

 has been working at all along. The general mistake in begin- 

 ning to rise in the stirrups is that the rider works too hard and 

 continues bobbing up and down without getting the time, 

 taking a great deal out of himself and his horse and doing no 

 good. He should be instructed to begin to rise down the long 

 side of the school only, and sit still again round the short 

 end of it. As the corners are at first almost sure to put him 

 out of time, he should count the time to himself, ' i 2,' ' i 2,' 

 1 i 2,' and so on ; ' i ' being to raise the body from the saddle 

 by bearing a little more weight on the stirrup and inclining the 

 body a little forward, ' 2,' to lower the body quietly into the 

 saddle again. In rising, the seat should just clear the saddle, 

 but the body must be kept long enough up to, as it were, rise 

 with one step and sit down with the next (although the horse 

 really takes a step between). If he loses the time, which he 

 is pretty sure to do at first, it is no use to keep on working 

 the body up and down to try and recover it, but sit still for a 

 few steps and then try again. It is found advisable with some 

 pupils in beginning this lesson to shorten their stirrups a hole 

 for the time, and with others to take a lock of mane in the 

 right hand, first putting both reins into the left hand, of course 

 resuming the proper position as soon as they got into the way 

 of it a little. Care must also here be taken that the lower part 

 of the legs are kept steady. Nothing looks worse than to see a 

 man kicking his horse under the jaw with his toe and in the flank 

 with the heel every time he rises on the stirrup ; besides, as 

 long as the legs are swinging backwards and forwards the seat 

 cannot be very secure. 



LESSON XVII 



The same as yesterday. If the instructor find he has more 

 to do than he can do well in about an hour, or if the pupil does 

 not get into the way of rising in the stirrups, discretion must 

 be used and some part of the lesson left out, say the quarter of 



