!.] FIT FOR COMMON RIDING. 7 



I will not assert that the art of riding thus is impos- A soldier's 



horse must 



sible, though it has ever been so to me ; and though, **" ^?| e 

 in my . own experience, I never saw a cavalry soldier, 

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

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

 But I may assert that it is an exceedingly nice and 

 delicate art. It is the opera-dancing of riding. And it 

 would be as absurd to put the skill of its professors in 

 requisition in common riding or across country, as to 

 require Taglioni to chasser over a ploughed field. For 

 single-handed indications, supposing them to be correctly 

 given which, as I have said, I have never known ; but 

 supposing them to be correctly given they are not suffi- 

 ciently distinct to turn a horse, except in a case of 

 optimism. That is, supposing for a short time a perfectly 

 broken horse, in perfect temper, perfectly on his haunches, 

 going perfectly up to his bit, and on perfect ground. 

 Without all these perfections suppose even the circum- 

 stance of the horse being excited or alarmed, or becoming 

 violent from any other cause ; that he is sluggish or sullen ; 



