TEACHING THE YOUNG IDEA. lo; 



natural bent take the lead in all romps and pastimes, and 

 bare-backed, astride, or in any fashion that seems to them 

 best, outvie their brothers. 



At first, the boys and girls should be put up, but soon will 

 learn to mount themselves, and for this purpose the pony 

 is trained to stand in the ditch, by the side of a low wall, 

 a sufficiently high step, a bank, or anything that will furnish 

 the necessary elevation. They should be encouraged to 

 practise mounting, as well as riding barebacked. After a 

 bit, as the boys grow, they will learn when the pony is at a 

 trot, to lay hold of the mane wdth both hands, and from 

 either side, to vault on his back or clean over him. Nothing 

 is easier so long as he be under weigh. Note the riders 

 in the circus, they always swing themselves on to the back 

 or saddle when the horse is in motion. 



When children are kind to their ponies it is marvellous 

 how close the bond of union between them and their four- 

 footed friend becomes. The Arab mares and their foals let 

 the young Bedaween take all sorts of liberties with them. 

 I have seen a little riding lad in a racing stable seek pro- 

 tection under his mare's legs — a by no means placid-tempered 

 animal — from the bullying treatment of the other urchins. 

 Sir Francis Head in his " Horse and his Rider," mentions a 

 visit to the farmyard of a Mr. Roff, on the Brighton Road, 

 near Croydon, where to his surprise he observed a lot of 

 children playing with a yearhng colt, which allowed them to 

 crawl between ;his legs and fondle him in various ways, just 

 as if he was a dog. On riding into the yard to inquire by 

 what magical means the little quadruped had been made so 

 gentle and tame, he was informed by the worthy old farmer 

 who owned the colt that his wife, kind to all her beasts, had 

 for many years been yearning to add to them a pet colt ; 

 that accordingly he had bought her one, and that she had 



