74 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. 



without remembering this unaccountable illusion ; our 

 control by means of the bridle is, in reality, little more 

 substantial than the chalk-line that seems to keep the 

 bird in durance. It should be our first consideration 

 so to manage the rein we handle as never to give our 

 horse the opportunity of discovering our weakness and 

 his own strength. 



How is this to be effected ? By letting his head go, 

 and allowing him to carry us where he will ? Cer- 

 tainly not, or we should have no need for the bridle at 

 all. By pulling at him, then, with main strength, and 

 trying the muscular power of our arms against that of 

 his shoulders and neck ? Comparing these relative forces 

 again, we are constrained to answer, Certainly not ; the 

 art of control is essentially founded on compromise. 

 In riding, as in diplomacy, we must always be ready to 

 give an inch that we may take an ell. The first prin- 

 ciple of horsemanship is to make the animal believe 

 we can rule its wildest mood ; the next, to prevent, at 

 any sacrifice, the submission of this plausible theory 

 to proof. You get on a horse you have never seen 

 before, improperly bitted, we may fairly suppose, for 

 few men would think of wasting as many seconds on 

 their bridle as they devote minutes to their boots and 

 breeches. You infer, from his wild eye and restless ear 



