THE-:- HORSE 



Riding a horse in this way has undoubtedly 

 a detrimental effect upon the soundness of 

 the animal's legs and is likely to cause al- 

 most any kind of localized hurt. In the 

 same way, riding a horse rapidly on a very 

 hard or slippery piece of ground will usually 

 cause harm. The hurt does not take place 

 merely as the normal consequence of riding 

 him on this kind of ground, but because the 

 horse has momentarily lost his balance, and 

 in an effort to regain it has strained him- 

 self; it follows that the average rider would 

 do well to refrain from this kind of equita- 

 tion. 



An expert horseman, however, may do all 

 of these things without injuring his mount. 

 He instinctively feels the position of the 

 horse's legs under him, and, with his aids 

 to control, he keeps the animal at all times 

 collected. He also maintains a more or less 

 uniform gait, which has the tendency to keep 

 the horse balanced and in his proper stride. 



Hard work on very hard ground will often 

 make the horse's legs "stock up," but will 

 rarely do any real injury. The tendons 

 merely fill a little. If the horse is very old, it 

 is true that this would be a reason for him to 

 "go sore." The problem of riding down hill 

 was not overlooked by Xenophon, whose 

 views on this subject, written twenty-three 

 hundred years ago, are still worth quoting: 



43 



