THE LADY'S HORSE. 27 



Some ladies, from fear of overbalancing on the off side, 

 lean over to the left, which has a shocking effect ; others 

 think they are correcting this fault by leaning their heads 

 to the off side, their bodies meanwhile inclining all the 

 same to the near side a position even more painful to 

 look at than the last. (Fig. 8.) Others, again, while 

 trotting, hold their whip out, as if it were possessed of an 

 infectious malady. Amongst unskilled horsewomen a kind 

 of double rise in the trot is equally popular and unbe- 

 coming. In fact, there is no end to the things which 

 ought not to be done at this pace. A portion at least of 

 what should be done is something as follows : 



The horse should be up to his bit ; if he be " behind 

 his bridle," as they say in the school, the rider has no 

 control over him. The elbows ought not to be too far 

 from the sides, and the wrists should be rounded and not 

 stiff. The figure may lean very slightly forward, and 

 must rise lightly in the stirrup to the horse's action. If 

 the stirrup be not the right length this cannot be done, 

 but no one except the lady herself can tell for certain 

 whether her stirrup is right, though spectators can make a 

 shrewd guess, when too much " daylight " appears or the 

 reverse, what is the remedy required. 



To start in the canter it is always well to take the 

 horse up rather on the bit, then to touch him with the 

 heel, and if he be well trained no further signal is 

 necessary for him to strike off " true and united." Care 

 must be taken not to let him go on his shoulders, and to 

 ride him even more up to his bit than in the trot, for the 

 prevention of the last-named fault. It is easier to sit 

 well in the canter than the trot. The figure may, of the 

 two, lean rather back than forward, shoulders always 

 square, and the seat steady. Nothing looks worse than 



