OF FARRIERY. 



469 



CHAPTER XV. 



DIRECTIONS TO THE YOUNG HORSEMAN, l^ RIDING, ETC. 



HORSEMANSHIP. 



We have not spoken of, or alluded to what 

 IS called the grand menage, in training the 

 Horse, but have confined ourselves only to 

 that branch of breaking:, which constitutes 

 the training cf the English Horse for the pur- 

 pose of the field and the road; leaving those 

 Horses which require a higher degree of per- 

 fection in the menage, to the care of those 

 professors of the riding-schools, whose busi- 

 ness it is to teach Horses to become astonish- 

 ing to the beholders in their caprioles, &c. 



The horsemanship of which we shall speak 

 of, will then be confined to the modern Eng- 

 lish school. We do not wish to depreciate 

 the talents of those masters who can so highly 

 dress their Horses, as to afibrd amusement to 

 thousands of spectators, as well as profit to 

 themselves ; still, nothing can be more obvi- 

 ous than that the menage is chiefly orna- 

 mental ; and that the thoroughly dressed 

 Horse is rather an object of luxurious parade 

 than of real utility. 



Adams (a writer on Horsemanship) says, 

 the body must always be in a situation, not 



only to preserve the balance, but to maintain 

 the seat. The distinction between the ba- 

 lance and the seat may be thus marked. The 

 balance is the centrical or equilibrium position 

 of the body, whatever may be the motion of 

 the Horse. The seat is the Horseman's firm 

 hold of the saddle, when he is liable to be 

 thrown over the Horse's neck, or to fall back- 

 wpird over his tail. 



To preserve the balance, it is evident the 

 body of the rider must keep in the same di- 

 rection as the Horse's legs ; e. g., if the Horse 

 work straight and upright on his legs, the 

 rider's body must be in the same upright di- 

 rection ; but when the Horse bends or leans, 

 as when working on a circle, or trotting round 

 a corner, the rider must lean in the .same di- 

 rection or proportion, or his balance will be 

 lost. The balance, indeed, may be preserved 

 by a diflferent seat ; but the seat will not be 

 secure. 



Mr. Adams says, that if the hand be held 

 steady, as the Horse advances in the trot, the 

 fingers will feel by the contraction and dilata- 

 tion of the reins, a small sensation or tug, oc- 

 casioned by the measure or cadence of every 

 6 c 



