CHAPTER XXI. 

 RIDING AND DRIVING FOR WOMEN. 



BY BELLE BEACH. 



" Your 'ead and your 'eart keep bravely up, 



Your 'ands and your 'eels keep down. 

 Your knees keep close to your 'orse's sides 

 And your elbows close to your own." 



RIDING is more popular among women to-day than it has 

 ever been before. Novices are taking lessons, and those 

 who dropped it are taking it up again, and it has become as 

 important a part in the education of a child as mathematics, 

 music, or dancing. 



There is an old and very true saying : " Riders are born, 

 not made." Yet being born with a gift for horsemanship is 

 no more all-sufficient than being born with a beautiful voice, 

 or a genius for painting. The voice must be cultivated, the 

 painter must study his art, and the rider must be trained. 

 Self-made riders are apt to scorn what we call form, yet 

 they should know that form is neither fad nor fashion, and 

 is most essential in both riding and driving. 



Women commencing to ride must realize that ten, twenty, 

 or forty lessons will not make experienced horsewomen of 

 them. Riding looks easy, and it is, but not easy to learn 

 (and I would like to add, to teach); age makes no especial 

 difference, but in riding, as in everything else, the earlier 

 one takes it up the greater advantage one has. I do not 

 approve of a very small child learning to ride. Young 



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