HORSEMANSHIP. 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTION. 



A WORK entitled ^'A Guide to Health and Long Life" 

 says : " In general it may be laid down as a rule that 

 ridhig is the best exercise for regaining health, and walking 

 for retaining it." Why not preserve a juste inilieu^ ride a 

 good deal, walk a good deal, and banish the doctor ? Riding 

 certainly, in the most effectual manner, strengthens the 

 stomach and intestines, and is less tiresome and laborious to 

 the lower limbs than walking, so that persons in a weak 

 condition of health can take horse-exercise with less pain or 

 difficulty. Both body and mind are enlivened by riding. 

 Sir Philip Sidney wrote : " You will never live to any age 

 without you keep yourself in health with exercise, and in 

 heart with joyfulness ; " and a medical aphorism says : " The 

 grand secret (of health) seems to be to contrive that the 

 exercise of the body and that of the mind may serve as 

 relaxations to each other." Ye who have experienced the 

 indescribable elasticity and happiness of a morning gallop 

 on Newmarket Heath, the Downs, or some other expanse of 

 sound turf, with a free-going horse under you, '' who looked 



