INTRODUCTION. 7 



manage to look well when riding at a gait no 

 faster than a walk, but, beyond this, her mo- 

 tions will appear rigid and uncomfortable. A 

 quick pace will induce rapid circulation, and 

 the blood, checked at the waist, will, like a 

 stream which has met with an obstacle in its 

 course, turn into other channels, rushing either 

 to the heart, causing faintness, or to the head, 

 producing headache and vertigo. There have 

 even been instances of a serious nature, where 

 expectoration of blood has been occasioned by 

 horseback riding, when the rider was tightly 

 laced. 



The naturally slender, symmetrical figure, 

 when in the saddle, is the perfection of beauty, 

 but she whom nature has endowed with more 

 ample proportions will never attain this perfec- 

 tion by pinching her waist in. Let the full fig- 

 ure be left to nature, its owner sitting well in 

 the saddle, on a horse adapted to her style, and 

 she will make a very imposing appearance, and 

 prove a formidable rival to her more slender 

 companion. 



There is a mistaken idea prevalent among 

 certain persons, that horseback riding induces 

 obesity. It is true that, to a certain extent, 

 riding favors healthy muscular development, 

 but the same may be said of all kinds of exercise, 



