50 GRACEFUL RIDING. 



saddle, but take pains to have them so easy, as to be 

 enabled on the instant to disengage both skirts and 

 knee. A facility, in this, can only be acquired by 

 constant practice ; and it is of far greater importance 

 to the lady equestrian to attain, than may appear 

 at the first glance. Had this apparently slight 

 attainment been made a matter of moderate con- 

 sideration, many a parent need not have had 

 to deplore the death or disfigurement of a beloved 

 child. 



When a lady has her habit drawn over the 

 crutch of her saddle, and tucked tightly in under 

 her leg (for the purpose of keeping the skirt in its 

 proper position), she denies herself the full liberty 

 of her knee, and in case of accident, to be off the 

 horse. 



On the shghtest warning, though foreseen, what- 

 ever the danger, the tightness of the lady's dress 

 will not allow her to get her leg out of its place, in 

 time to make any effectual effort to save herself ; 

 also, it is probable that the habit might get entangled 

 in the pummel, and she, frightened of course, would 

 become unable to disengage her foot from the stirrup 

 (or shoe), in which case she inevitably experiences 

 the most appalling of all accidents, — being dragged 

 powe)'less, bg a terrified horse, a considerable dis- 

 tance along the road. 



