26 HORSEMANSHIP. 



seat which I have observed only among those who 

 began to ride when they were boys. I attribute this to 

 the fact that a high degree of proficiency in the art 

 of balancing oneself, can be acquired only when a com- 

 mencement is made in early youth. Riding is so 

 essentially an affair of nerve and balance, that it is 

 hopeless to except to become a brilliant performer in the 

 saddle, unless one learns before one knows what fear 

 is, and before one's joints have lost their pliability. 

 Practice, however, can do a great deal, even to putting a 

 man's heart in the right place, for the more familiarised 

 we are with any form of danger, the less do we regard it. 

 Boys who have the opportunity, usually commence 

 their first lessons in equitation on a donkey, or small 

 pony, and by dint of many falls, and a little advice, get 

 " shaken into their saddles." I well remember, when I 

 was a small boy of eight or nine, my father's coachman, 

 whom I regarded, at that timiC, as the highest authority 

 on riding in the world, repeatedly telling me that I should 

 never be able to ride until I had seventy-seven falls. 

 I unfortunately lost count when I got into the twenties, 

 so cannot exactly tell whether he was right or wrong, 

 although I am certain that the " spills " I had, made me 

 all the mere keen. I believe that a few falls, provided 



