120 Modern Riding and Horse Education 



understood. At polo rowels are not allowed, and, 

 speaking generally, at most sports and games that 

 horses love, the rider is better without them. For 

 the slug and for the horse that wants his mind made 

 up for him, sharp spurs are necessary, but they en- 

 tail this disadvantage — that when hunting the rider 

 is apt to punish his mount unintentionally, either 

 in falling or by getting his foot caught in a fence. 



Devotees of Haute Ecole seem all, or nearly all, 

 to have been very fond of the spur, and doubtless 

 for riding of this character it is useful. Baucher, 

 who is recorded never to have ridden outside a 

 school, wrote that whether a horse was a slug or hot 

 tempered, he was three parts broken if he had been 

 taught to endure the spurs. Fillis said that they 

 were a " valuable aid," and Nolan and Anderson 

 were two English writers who laid down that the 

 young horse should be taught to receive the attack 

 of the spur with calmness ! Three at least of these 

 authors were masters of the " great saddle," and 

 their opinion excites every respect. Whyte Melville, 

 a writer of a different school, would have most of us 

 do without spurs, and he is right as long as we ride 

 nothing but well-balanced and willing horses. 



