THE NOBLE SCIENCE. Ill 



which, to my thinking, and not according to my opinion 

 only, has no parallel. Sir F. Burdett, Colonel Standen, 

 Lord Clanricarde, and other eminent performers, ride 

 also with long stirrups. Some others, whom I could 

 mention, would, probably, ride better without ^ny, 

 than many could with the assistance of either short or 

 long ; and some huntsmen, &c. have a habit of releasing 

 their feet, and throwing their stirrups over the withers of 

 their horse at any large leap, particularly at brooks ; in 

 this respect, therefore, we may say, " sua cuiqiie voluntas'' 

 A very indifferent and infirm seat, may, by practice, 

 become firm and good ; but a hand, the dehcate sym- 

 pathy of finger with the mouth of the horse, is less 

 easily acquired. So rarely is it seen, that it may be 

 doubted whether it is to be attained, or if it be not alto- 

 gether a gift of nature. Old Chifney's rule was to " hold 

 your rein as a silken thread which you fear to break," 

 and the circumstance of so many horses becoming tem-> 

 perate under the control of ladies, which are violent in 

 the hands of their lords, is proof positive of the advan- 

 tages of gentleness ; unless, indeed, the effect is attributa- 

 ble to the jyiill which they have always over us, and the 

 horses are conscious of the kind of dominion, or rule, 

 of woman-kind to which they have submitted. Not one 

 horse in a hundred has a mouth for a snaffle-bridle only, 

 and, perhaps, one in a thousand is nearer the proportion 

 of those which can go with a loose rein. We know that,, 



