CONTENTS 



Page 

 Introduction 9 



CHAPTER I. 



How to approach a horse — Bridling — Saddling — Mounting 



— Dismounting — An episode near Lake Tahoe 11 



CHAPTER II. 



Balance — How to keep it — Experience with bucking horses 

 — Correct length of stirrup — Grip — How it counteracts 

 inertia — European cavalry man's experiment — Seat — 

 What it means in the saddle — "The End of the Trail." 19 



CHAPTER III. 



How the rider controls his horse — Bits, and how they work 

 — The Martingale — Spurs — Whips — Balance — How to 

 start and stop a horse — How to make a horse slide — 

 Backing a horse — Changing direction — Changing leads 

 at a gallop — Teaching the horse to trot and to walk 

 — Riding without reins 26 



CHAPTER IV. 



Reining a horse — Use of different bits — How his mouth is 

 made — The natural gaits — The walk, the trot and the 

 canter — Natural gaits more useful than acquired gaits 

 — Popularity of five-rjaited horses for show purposes — 

 Jumping and swimming 34 



CHAPTER V. 



Riding up and down hill or on a pavement — The right and 

 wrong ways of doing so — Xenophon's comments about 

 ancient hill riders — Opening a gate when on horseback 

 — Talking to horses — Efficacy of a well-spoken word — 

 The art of falling off — How best to escape injury — A 

 midnight runaway and a drop in the darkness 42 



CHAPTER VI. 



Racing and race horses — Early training — Reasons for the 

 light bit and the short stirrup — Use and misuse of the 

 whip in racing — Horse show ethics — Looks are every- 

 thing — Satisfy the judge — Importance of etiquette — 

 Polo ponies — They just happen and are not bred — 

 Difficulty of finding them — Amenities of the polo pony 

 trade — What constitutes a perfect polo pony 50 



