Cantering in a Figure Eight. 135 



will not be able to use this until you have de- 

 voted more time to study as well as practice. 



After you have tried the circle to your satisfac- 

 tion, try cantering in a figure eight of sufficient 

 size. Nelly will thereby learn instinctively to 

 change step as she comes to the loops. You can 

 probably find a field or lawn somewhere on which 

 you can practice. Out-of-door instruction is al- 

 ways preferable to riding-school work, if equally 

 good, both for man and beast. And such instruc- 

 tion as these hints are intended to enable you to 

 give, will teach you more than the average riding- 

 school ever does. I by no means refer to those 

 schools which teach equitation as a true art, in- 

 stead of merely drilling you in the bald elements 

 of riding. Nor is there any better place to give 

 Nelly proper instruction than a riding-school, un- 

 less it be the lawn or field. What you teach 

 Nelly out-of-doors you will find her much more 

 willing and able to put into use on the road than 

 if she had gone through the same drill in a school. 



XL. 



The above is, of course, the crudest of methods 

 compared with the best School systems, but if 

 you have taught Nelly her side steps (or pirou- 

 ettes), as I have described them to you, or in other 

 words have to a certain extent suppled her fore- 

 hand and croup by the proper flexions, you can 



