50 Modern Riding and Horse Education 



child on the rocking-horse keeps his body practically 

 perpendicular to the ground whilst the horse rocks, 

 if he is not bearing on the reins; he appears to lean 

 backwards and forwards, but this is an ocular de- 

 ception caused by the rocking movements. When 

 the boy learns to ride on leaving the nursery he is 

 often told to sit well back when going at any fence 

 but a bank, and the true balance he may have ac- 

 quired as an infant is sacrificed. The position he is 

 now taught to assume in the saddle makes holding 

 on by the reins a necessity if he is not to tumble back- 

 wards off his pony when it rises. 



The rocking-horse does not, however, move for- 

 ward, and if the reader stands on an advancing plat- 

 form he will find that to maintain his equilibrium he 

 must lean more or less forward, according to the 

 pace at which the platform is traveling. 



Plates IV and V show the correct balance of the 

 body when the horse rises and when he is in the mid- 

 dle of his jump, the pace being a slow canter in both 

 cases ; it will be seen that the preponderance of the 

 rider's weight in either picture is on the forward 

 side of a line passing through the man's hips and 

 perpendicular with the ground. In Plate VI, as 



