Southern Equestriennes. 165 



denizens of the civilized cities of the temperate 

 zone. 



In this country, the Southerner is the most 

 constantly in the saddle, and a good rider in the 

 sunny South is a thoroughly good rider. But I 

 have often wondered at the number of poor ones 

 it is possible to find in localities where everybody 

 moves about in the saddle. Many men there, 

 who ride all the time, seem to have acquired the 

 trick of breaking every commandment in the dec- 

 alogue of equitation. Using horses as a mere 

 means of transportation seems sometimes to re- 

 duce the steed to a simple beast of burden, and 

 equestrianism to the bald ability to sit in the sad- 

 dle as you would in an ox-cart. 



I think I have seen more graceful equestri- 

 ennes in the South than anywhere else, — than 

 even in England. But I must admit that all 

 women who ride well possess such attractions for 

 me as perhaps to warp my judgment in endeav- 

 oring to draw comparisons. Who but a Paris 

 could have awarded the apple ? 



Although the Southern woman refuses to ride 

 the trot, she has a proper substitute for it, and her 

 seat is generally admirable. Though I greatly 

 admire a square trot well ridden in a side-saddle, 

 it is really the rise on this gait which makes so 

 many crooked female riders among ourselves and 

 our British cousins. This ought not to be so, but 



