144 ENGLISH SADDLE-BEASTS 



yond criticism. This and polo are the things in which we 

 have made marked progress, and we have done well to 

 take our model from our British cousins, for in these 

 sports they are masters. But in road-riding the English 

 can teach us nothing. Much as the English ride they 

 know little of the niceties of equitation. What is called 

 a good saddle-beast in England will not pass muster among 

 those who breed exclusively for the saddle, and ride vast- 

 ly more. Thoroughly familiar with the saddle, their style 

 of road-riding is none the less far from perfect. They are 

 so permeated with the hunting idea that they are con- 

 stantly riding to cover in the park. 



Now it is incontestable that the Southerner— though he, 

 too, shows points of criticism, as of necessity any class of 

 riders must do — is on the whole a better model for road- 

 riding than exists elsewhere ; and it is also true that he 

 breeds and trains far better saddle-horses than England 

 has known for two generations. We Yankees are too 

 new and narrow^ in our recently-acquired sport to be able 

 to see this fact, though it is under our very eyes. This is 

 natural enough, for we got our riding fever along with our 

 athletic fad from across the pond, but it is regrettable. 

 Fox-hunting, though on a distinctly cruder plan than in 

 the old countr}^, has been a constant practice in the South 

 for two hundred years ; despite which the English hunt- 

 ing model is indisputably better. But in road-riding the 

 Southern gentleman is far ahead of the Briton as to his 

 gaits and seat and style. A man who hunts regularly 

 rides on the road a half-dozen times to once he follows 

 the hounds ; one Avho hunts occasionally does so a hun- 

 dred times as often. And yet each, as well as the man 

 who never hunts, patterns his seat for the road on the 

 hunting model, which was intended for as different a pur- 

 pose from mere road-riding as the cowboy's. And each 



