CHAPTER FOURTEEN 

 RIDING AND DRIVING 



ALL of us have heard of natural riders. It must be 

 that when any one with knowledge of the art of 

 riding speaks in this way that he means to say 

 that the individuals alluded to had a great nat- 

 ural capacity to acquire the art of riding, for rid- 

 ing is an art and does not come to any one except 

 through practice, instruction, and imitation. 

 Some persons can acquire a foreign tongue with 

 what seems an easy facility while others of 

 equal mentality have the greatest difficulty 

 and never succeed in any eminent degree. Those 

 to whom the acquirement of foreign tongues is 

 easy have a gift for languages, just as some others 

 have a gift for mathematics or for rhyming or for 

 drawing. And so it is in Equitation. To some 

 riding comes easily, to others it is difficult, while 

 some others seem absolutely incapable of acquir- 



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