98 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. 



of it or not. Neither should it be restored, after his 

 stirrups have been taken away, till he has again proved 

 himself independent of its support. When he has 

 learnt to canter round the school, and sit firm over a 

 leaping bar, with his feet swinging loose, and' his hands 

 in his pockets, he will have become a better horseman 

 than ninety-nine out of every hundred who go out 

 hunting. Henceforward you may trust him to take 

 care of himself, and swim alone. 



In every art it is well to begin from the very first 

 with the best method ; and I would instil into a pupil, 

 even of the tenderest years, that although his legs, and 

 especially his knees, are to be applied firmly to his 

 pony's sides, as affording a security against tumbling 

 off, it is from the loins that he must really ride, when all 

 is said and done. 



I dare say most of us can remember the mechanical 

 horse exhibited in Piccadilly some ten or twelve years 

 ago, a German invention, remarkable for its ingenuity 

 and the wonderful accuracy with which it imitated, in 

 an exaggerated degree, the kicks, plunges, and other 

 outrages practised by the most restive of the species 

 to unseat their riders. Shaped in the truest symmetry, 

 clad in a real horse's skin, with flowing mane and tail, 

 this automaton represented the live animal in every 



