90 How to Mount. 



a half-dark stable. Regular exercise is as essen- 

 tial to a horse as oil is to an engine, if either is 

 to work smoothly. 



You ask me the proper way to mount. Let us 

 stop while you dismount, and I will show you the 

 usual way. It is simple work. Stand opposite 

 Nelly's near shoulder, a foot or so away from her, 

 and facing towards the cantle of your saddle. 

 Gather up your snaffle reins just tight enough 

 to feel, but not pull on her mouth, and seize a 

 part of her mane with your left hand. Insert 

 your toe in the stirrup, just as it hangs, using 

 your right hand if necessary. Then seize the 

 cantle of the saddle with your right hand, and 

 springing from your right foot, without touching 

 the horse's flank with your left toe, raise yourself 

 into the stirrup, pause a moment, and then throw 

 the leg across the horse, moving your right hand 

 away in season. If you were shorter, you might 

 have to spring from your foot before you could 

 touch the cantle. As in everything else, there 

 are other and perhaps better ways to mount, and 

 pages can be written upon the niceties of each 

 method. But the above suffices for the nonce. 

 You can choose your own fashion when you have 

 tried them all. 



An active youngster, like yourself, should be 

 able to vault into the saddle without putting the 

 left foot into the stirrup at all. In all Continental 



