Applying Scientific Principles 19 



in this we can take a lesson from abroad without 

 going into any extravagances. After the Interna- 

 tional Horse Show at Olympia (London) in 1909 

 the following interesting comments appeared in a 

 French official journal, after many encomiums on 

 English practical horsemanship : — " They (English- 

 men) fail in that nothing (ce rien) which may be so 

 easily learnt in the school .... (and which) consists 

 in those principles of equitation by which a horse 

 may be taught to go pleasantly wherever, whenever, 

 and however one wishes, and at whatever pace is 

 desired." Let us be satisfied w^hen we have arrived 

 at this and go no further; it is not necessary, nor 

 can it be advantageous, to teach a horse for example 

 to " canter false," one of the tests exacted at the 

 Brussels International Horse Show of 1910. 



Towards the end of the reign of James I serious 

 efforts appear to have been made to improve horse 

 training and riding in England. Lord Mostyn 

 possesses an MS. bearing date 1618, in which the 

 Lord President of the Council of the Marches urges 

 the Deputy-Lieutenants of Flint to found a Riding 

 Academy out of the rates, where horsemanship, " a 

 necessary and useful part of every gentleman's 



