L 



RIDING. 



"Hold fast, sit sure." 



Riding is said to be the poetry of motion ; anyway, 

 it is the most invigorating and healthy of exercises. We 

 are taught that horsemanship emanates from Egypt, and 

 that Egypt was the great and original breeding place for 

 horses ; we are likewise told that Solomon obtained all his 

 horses from Egypt, the price averaging 160 Shekels, or 

 about ^"18 English money, for each animal. According 

 to the Greek writers, Sesostris was the first who taught 

 men to tame and ride horses. Six hundred years after 

 Solomon, Xenophon says that Persia possessed no horses 

 before the age of Cyrus, but afterwards produced the 

 finest in the world, and all were horsemen, in fact the 

 very name of Persia became associated with horsemanship, 

 and the present of a Persian horse was a gift indeed. 

 The Greeks became famous for their horsemanship about 

 the time of, or just before, the Trojan war, (1192 B. C.) 

 hence the Grecian fables of the Centaurs, or as Ovid calls 

 them semi-human horses and semi-equine men. It is 

 said that the Mexicans fled at the first sight of the 

 Spanish cavalry, thinking they were u monsters." The 

 Half Breeds of North America are considered the most 

 extraordinary and wonderful horsemen in the world. In 



