RIDING IN THE RANKS. 297 



field of a few acres some miles away in which to drill the 

 regiment ! " The men cannot choose their mounts, some of 

 which are neither safe nor comfortable to ride, nor can they 

 select the ground they have to go over when riding at close 

 files in the ranks, but they must go straight on. Most of 

 them learn their riding in the army and have never had the 

 opportunity of a ride across country, neither do the troop 

 horses get the chance of going over a natural country, but 

 only over made fences. Considering all these disadvantages 

 it is a wonder the men ride as well as they do. Mounted 

 sports, military tournaments, jumping without reins and 

 bare-back riding and vaulting partly make up for these 

 disadvantages, where the men can take part in them ; but 

 given the same opportunities as their officers, our men would 

 ride as well as the best in the country. 



The Aids. The aids in horsemanship have been fully 

 dealt with in an earlier chapter of this book, and as they 

 apply to military riding as well as ordinary riding, there is no 

 need to repeat them here. 



I disagree with the author's method of reining back (on 

 p. 254). The object of reining back is to lighten the forehand 

 and to collect the animal, and the raising of his head does 

 not unduly bring the weight too much on the haunches, or 

 make it difficult to use his hind legs freely. It is so rare that 

 a horse objects to this method by rearing, that I cannot 

 distinctly remember one doing it, although we never miss 

 reining back any morning, and we train about 100 horses 

 a year. 



