62 HORSEMANSHIP. 



knows this, yet in almost every case one-handed riders, by 

 exerting a rein pressure on the side of the neck, expect hini 



to forget all the teaching of the breaker and to do the very 

 reverse. Colonel Greenwood, late of the 2nd Life Guards, 

 writing on this subject, says, " When you wish to turn to 

 the right, pull the right rein stronger than the left; this is 

 common sense. The conimon error is precisely the reverse. 

 The common error is — when you wish to turn to the right, 

 to pass the hand to the right. By this the right rein is 

 slackened, and the left rein is tightened across the horse's 

 neck ; and the horse is required to turn to the right when 

 the left rein is pulled. It is to correct this common error, 

 this monstrous and perpetual source of bad riding and bad 

 usage to good animals, that these pages (' Hints on Horse- 

 manship ') are written. I never knew a cavalry soldier, 

 rough-rider, riding-master, or any horseman whatever^ 

 who turned his horse, single handed, on the proper rein.'' 

 Again : " The soldier who is compelled to turn to the right 

 by the word of command, when the correct indication is 

 unanswered, in despair throws his hand to the right. The 

 consequence is, that no horse is a good soldier's horse till 

 he has been trained to turn on the wrong rein." AVithout 

 the same excuse for it, the same may be said of all ladies 

 and all civilians who ride with one hand only, and of almost 

 all who ride with two hands ; for, strange to say, in turning, 

 both hands are generally passed to the right or left ; and I 

 have known many of what may be called the most perfect 

 straightforward hands — that is, men who, on the turf, would 

 hold the most difficult three-year-old to the steady stroke of 

 a two-mile course and place him as a winner, to half a 

 length, who, on the hunting field, would ride the hottest and 

 the most phlegmatic made hunter with equal skill, through 

 all the difficulties of ground, and over every species offence, 



