128 MOUNTING AND DISMOUNTING. 



straighten her knee. His crimes in this respect are 

 many. First, he may catch hold of the heel of her 

 boot in the preliminary stage, and will thus prevent 

 her utilising the play of her left ankle joint in her 

 spring. Experiment will show that this trick of 

 catching the heel hampers a lady's movements in 

 mounting much more than might at first be thought 

 possible. Second, from knowing no better, or from a 

 desire to show off his strength, he may use only one 

 hand to lift the lady, and will then almost always have 

 cause to regret his superfluity of self confidence. 

 Third, he may stand too far away from her, and thus 

 bring her left foot too much forward, in which case it 

 will be almost impossible for her to straighten her left 

 knee. Fourth, he may also prevent her from doing 

 this indispensable part of the performance, by trying to 

 raise her before she has put her weight on his hands. 

 Fifth, he may stand too far away from the side of the 

 horse, in which case he is liable to throw her over to 

 the off side of the horse (as happened once to me), by 

 giving her an oblique instead of a vertical propulsion. 

 A minor form of this mistake is attempting to put the 

 lady on the saddle, instead of raising her to the height 

 at which she can easily take her seat. After a lady 

 has suffered from clumsy attempts to put her up, it is 

 not to be wondered at if she regards the feat of 

 mounting as one which requires some peculiar knack 

 to accomplish ; and, as failure in mounting is parti- 

 cularly ungraceful, she naturally becomes nervous 

 about attempting it. If she has any doubts as to her 



