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of business, or pleasure, can scarcely fail of exhibiting to the life the hero 

 of LaMancha; and more especially should his figure possess those na- 

 tural tendencies grateful to the burlesque, which need not be pointed out. 



But we see little or nothing of this among our military officers, who 

 have generally adopted the hunting seat on horseback, with the excep- 

 tion, that they most usually ride with the ball of the foot upon the stir- 

 rup, either from established custom, or that it is really best adapted to mi- 

 litary equitation. They, on the other hand, who are acquainted with the 

 jockey-seat, agree, that the position of the foot, home in the stirrup, is 

 most convenient and easy, and most in unison with the other forms of 

 the seat. There is also an appearance of aukwardness, imperfection, 

 and flaw, in the vacuum between the leg and the stirrup leather. In the 

 jockey-seat there is certainly a considerable dependance on the stirrups, 

 from the occasional force used in pulling, and the action of the rider; but 

 the chief dependance ought ever to be on the knee and thigh. Among 

 the gentlemen of the riding-house, we sometimes hear of the uselessness 

 of stirrups, but never of their having laid them aside. 



With a conviction of the inutility, expensiveness, and injury of the 

 thorough manege, and with a similar conviction of the equal use and se- 

 curity of jockey equitation, for en dernier resort, the forms of both seats 

 must give way to holding fast, by whatever means. I am so far from 

 wishing the abolition of riding-schools, that I would rather see them in- 

 creased, and not merely for military, but general use. A system of 

 demi-manege, including all that is useful of the grand system, would 

 form military chargers, supposing the Horses naturally adapted, with 

 action sufficiently lofty and grand, for the most ostentatious: Horses for 

 the ranks, also, perfectly qualified, and those for general use more grace- 

 ful, safe, and pleasant, than we at present find thein. These last ought 

 to come out of the riding-school, with a moderately-tempered mouth, 

 and no farther put together, than to render them safe. Tliere are some 

 loose-formed Horses, however, leaving their legs behind them, which 

 might probably receive benefit from the uniting process of the manege 

 and those with ill-formed and reversed necks, would receive at school 

 their only possible improvement, that of a good moutii. I have before 

 given the caution, that in general, most Horses out of training, should, 



previously 



