106 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. 



full speed, the most inexperienced horseman seems to 

 fall naturally into the required position ; but to preserve 

 it, even through the regulated paces of the riding school 

 demands constant effort and attention. The back-board 

 is here, in my opinion, of great assistance to the beginner, 

 as it forces him into an attitude that causes him to sit 

 on the right part of his own person and his horse's back. 

 It compels him also to carry his hands at a considerable 

 distance off the horse's head, and thus entails also the 

 desideratum of long reins. 



The shortest and surest way, however, of attaining a 

 firm seat on horseback is, after all, to practise without 

 stirrups on every available opportunity. Many a 

 valuable lesson may be taken while riding to covert and 

 nobody but the student be a bit the wiser. Thus to trot 

 and canter along, for two or three miles on end is no bad 

 training at the beginning of the season, and even an 

 experienced horseman will be surprised to find how it 

 gets him down in his saddle, arid makes him feel as 

 much at home there as he did in the previous March. 



The late Captain Percy Williams, as brilliant a rider 

 over a country as ever cheered a hound, and to whom few 

 professional jockeys would have cared to give five 

 pounds on a race-course, assured me that he attributed 

 to the above self-denying exercise that strength in the 



