REARING. 463 



as possible, keeping him at the same time on the 

 turn to the right. Confirmed rearers are however 

 so quick in getting up on their hind legs, that 

 the rider has no time, even were she supplied with 

 a sufficiently long whip, to get anywhere near his 

 hocks, and all she can do is to lean well forward 

 and leave his mouth alone. If she is still alive 

 when he comes down, my strong advice would be 

 to get off his back, and give him, as the late Mr. 

 Abingdon Baird did in the case of a similar brute, 

 to the first passer by ! Rearing is no test of 

 horsemanship, and the sickening sight of ladies 

 in circuses mounted on rearers is one from which 

 every good horsewoman would recoil with horror. 

 At Rentz circus in Hamburg I saw one of these 

 awful sights, and noticed that the ringmaster kept 

 touching the steiger on the fore-legs with the 

 whip in order to make him paw the air. I have 

 been told that so long as a rearing horse keeps 

 pawing in this manner, he will not fall over, but 

 such horrid exhibitions ought to be prevented. 

 There is nothing more trying to the nerves of 

 any rider than hunting on a refuser which has a 

 tendency to rear, and I have known ladies whose 

 nerves have been utterly shattered in their efforts 

 to govern such dangerous brutes. Take my advice 

 ladies and have nothing to do with these animals ; 

 for it is far easier to get rid of a horse than it 

 is to recover one's nerve, and the longer a lady 

 tries to wrestle with a rearer, the more difficulty 



