14 Modern Riding and Horse Education 



to appeal to the average Englishman and American 

 who hunts and plays polo; and we can take it that 

 what in old days w^as called the " Great Saddle," and 

 now " advanced Haute Ecole " work, is of no practi- 

 cal value, nor do we meet such jumps as the 

 " piano," and three rails of progressive heights, so 

 placed that they must be jumped as one obstacle, out- 

 side the show ring. We learn, however, from the 

 foreigner the value of training both man and horse 

 systematically for a particular object, as against 

 our happy-go-lucky methods ; w^hatever success these 

 may meet with being really in advance of their de- 

 serts. 



The Messrs. Miller, at Rugby, train ponies as well 

 as, if not better than, anybody else in the w^orld, and 

 in some other individual cases excellent results are 

 obtained; but speaking generally, the farmer's son 

 handles the colt with but little idea of how to set 

 about it, and the dealer's lad wall probably complete 

 the breaking — for education it can hardly be called 

 — the horse being then sold as a finished hunter or 

 hack. If he is properly balanced and has a good 

 mouth the purchaser is exceptionally lucky, and if 

 the animal answers to the leg he is luckier still. An 



