HOW TO BIDE. 26 



the rider loses all his support at once, the stirrup acting only as a pivot 

 round which, by means of his stiff leg, his whole body is made, by the 

 impulse received from the hind legs, to rotate and go over the horse's head. 

 And if a horse suddenly swerves, turns on his haunches, or comes to a dead 

 halt at a jump, the rider is most likely to continue the original line of 

 movement, whilst the horse adopts a new one, or '' reposes." Thirdly, this 

 method of riding tends very forcibly to making the horse convert the rider's 

 hand into a fifth leg for itself, the pull of the head on the rein coming at an 

 acute angle to the push or tread of the leg in the stirrup ; and this, when 

 carried to excess, degenerates into pure rein and stirrup riding without any 

 seat, especially with horses that carry their heads low. 



The rule for the jockey we have seen is, never, in standing in his 

 stirrups, to depend for seat to any extent on his reins. Why this should 

 be neglected in hunting is not easy to understand. The Cossacks and 

 Circassians, who all ride with a snaffle, and do wonderful things with it, sit 

 perfectly independent of the rein ; any one can make his horse equally 

 light in the hand with a snaffle as theirs are, by making his seat as inde- 

 pendent of the reins and stirrups, or use a curbed bit in hunting if he 

 pleases. It is the close, steady seat that makes the hand light and the 

 horse's mouth soft ; and therefore it is much more valuable in teaching to 

 make the young riders dispense altogether with the reins than with the 

 stirrups, and may be done sooner. 



Apropos of rising in the stirrups, we hear it asserted that " either to 

 avoid a kick, or in jumping a large fence, the rider, by merely rising in his 

 stirrups, lifts his body off the seat and accordingly the blow aimed at it 

 fails to reach it." 



If a man sits in the right place he does not need to rise in his stirrups 

 for any such purpose. 



We believe that the great secret of good horsemanship in general con- 

 sists in avoiding exaggerations of all kinds. The saddle, the position of 

 the stirrup, and the peculiar object in view, may and must induce modifica- 

 tions of the seat ; but riding is still riding, and the mechanism of the 

 horse's construction cannot be altered by mere fashion. 



