I04 Guiding the Horse. 



touching them. When you feel as secure this 

 way as any other, your seat is strong. You do 

 not want to do this en evidence. But get off on 

 the country roads and practice it. This is one 

 advantage of a careful riding-master and a good 

 school ; a pupil is taught the seat apart from and 

 before the uses of the reins. 



XXXIII. 



As I think you have already mastered all that 

 I have told you, you may begin to teach Penel- 

 ope a bit. But remember that, as you are both 

 intelligent, she will be teaching you at the same 

 time. I notice that you have to use two hands 

 to guide your mare, and I presume you want to 

 learn some better way, for however necessary two 

 hands may occasionally be, a horse must at times 

 be managed by one. There are three methods of 

 guiding a horse under saddle. The simplest, and 

 the one requiring the least education, is the same 

 which you are using, and which is the common 

 way of driving, by holding the rein or reins of 

 each side in one hand, and by pulling rein on the 

 side you wish Nelly to turn to. It is possible to 

 guide this way with one hand by a suitable turn 

 of the wrist, but unless the horse is well collected, 

 as few of our horses nowadays are, it is a poor 

 reliance in any unusual case. The next method 

 is guiding by the neck, by which the horse is 



