HINTS ON HORSEMANSHIP. 13 



and supported both by the hand and leg. I beg my pupil to 

 believe, that the horse's legs support the rider, and not the 

 rider's the horse ; that the horse carries the rider, and not 

 the rider the horse: — more than this, that the rider cannot 

 lift the horse, nor hold him up, when in the act of falling. 

 How often do we hear a man assert, that he has taken his 

 horse up, between his hands and legs, and lifted him over a 

 fence ; that he has recovered his horse on the other side, or 

 that his horse would have fallen with him forty times, if he 

 had not held him up ! These are vulgar errors, and mechanical 

 impossibilities. Could ten men, with hand-spikes, lift the 

 weight of a horse ? Probably. Attach the weight to the thin 

 rein of a lady's bridle ! Could a lady lift it with the left 

 hand ? I think not. Though it is commonly supposed she 

 could. A pull from a curb will, indeed, give the horse so 

 much pain in the mouth that he will throw his head up ; and 

 this so flatters the hand that its prowess has saved him, that 

 the rider exclaims, " It may be impossible, but it happens 



