6 BEGINNING TO RIDE. 



ride should not be compelled to practise this art, for, 

 apart from the cruelty of subjecting a highly nervous 

 girl to the torture of riding lessons, such unwilling 

 pupils never become accomplished horsewomen. In 

 the same way, a child who has no ear for music, 

 and who is forced against her wish to learn the piano, 

 never develops into a good player. 



The same remark applies to older ladies, who, with 

 the usual angelic resignation of my sex, try their 

 best to obey the command of their lords and masters 

 by learning to ride. I fear that success in this art 

 is seldom attained by ladies over thirty years of age, 

 for by that time they have generally lost the dashing 

 pluck of their youth ; their figures have become set 

 and matronly ; and, as a rule, they find great difficulty 

 in mastering the subtleties of balance and grip. Also, 

 a state of nervous anxiety is apt to add to the general 

 stiffness of their appearance, and to suggest discomfort 

 and irritability. 



We read from time to time alarming rumours of 

 " spinal curvature" as a result of side-saddle riding, 

 but I have never known a case of this to occur, either 

 to old or young, although the near-side position of 

 the leaping-head has a tendency to develop the 

 muscles of the left leg more than those of the right 

 leg, a fact which I discovered as soon as I began 

 to ride a bicycle, after having had many years' ex- 

 perience on horses. Riding alternately on a saddle 

 with the leaping-head on the near side and on one 

 with the leaping-head on the off side, would help 



