RIDING FOR LADIES. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE lady's horse. 



There is no more difficult animal to find on the face of 

 the earth than a perfect lady's horse. It is not every one 

 that can indulge in the luxury of a two-hundred-and-fifty 

 to three-hundred-guinea hack, and yet looks, action, and 

 manners will always command that figure, and more. Some 

 people say, what can carry a man can carry a woman. What 

 says Mrs. Power O'Donoghue to this : " A heavy horse is 

 never in any way suitable to a lady. It looks amiss. The 

 trot is invariably laboured, and if the animal should chance 

 to fall, he gives his rider what we know in the hunting-field 

 as ' a mighty crusher.' It is indeed, a rare thing to meet 

 a perfect ' lady's horse.' In all my wide experience I have 

 met but two. Breeding is necessary for stability and speed — 

 two things most essential to a hunter ; but good light action 

 is, for a roadster, positively indispensable, and a horse who 

 does not possess it is a burden to his rider, and is, moreover, 

 exceedingly unsafe, as he is apt to stumble at every rut 

 and stone." 



Barry Cornwall must have had something akin to per- 

 fection in his mind's eye when penning the following lines :— 



" Full of fire, and full of bone, 

 All his line of fathers known ; 

 Fine his nose, his nostrils thin, 

 But blown abroad by the pride within ! 

 His mane a stormy river flowing, 

 And his eyes like embers glowing 

 In the darkness of the night, 

 And his pace as swift as light. 



