240 ENGLISH SPORTSWOMEN 



but near the sides. The motion of the bridle- 

 hand must be Hke that of skilled pianoforte- 

 players, confined to the wrist." 



From the above may be gathered the style of 

 the work referred to. It is, perhaps, rather heavy. 

 For instance, it might have been nearly as 

 explicit to have simply told the reader to pull 

 her stirrup-leather up to the length which suits 

 her best. Anyway, this ought to be done ; and 

 to do this with success, it would be wise to get 

 the advice of a good lady-rider, and even a man, 

 who understands this ticklish subject. Take the 

 joint advice of both as to whether you ride too 

 long or too short. If the man thinks one way 

 and the lady critic another, you better strike the 

 happy medium. 



Too much stress cannot be laid on the advis- 

 ability of learning practical riding from men 

 and women who have never perhaps written a 

 line on the subject, but who know what they are 

 talking about, and can show your faults and try 

 hard to rectify them. Six months' riding, under 

 the tuition of an acknowledofed master or mistress 

 of this art, will teach you more, with plenty of 

 change in mounts, than you will ever glean with- 

 out practice, if you assimilate the best passages 

 in equine literature. 



Before touching on other topics connected with 

 horses, such as their numerous ailments, I cannot 

 draw too much attention to the interesting 

 Badminton Library, which should rank as 

 standard works on those subjects they deal 

 with so minutely. Another kind of book still 



