42 RIDING FOR LADIES. 



SO soon as he has gone about and the turn is fully completed, 

 a lift of the hand and a touch of the leg and heel should 

 instanter compel him to move forward at the canter in the 

 opposite direction ; he must no sooner be round than off. 

 When no Riding-school is available, one constructed of 

 hurdles closely laced with gorse, on the sheep-lambing 

 principle, will answer all purposes. Should the horse be at 

 all awkward or unsteady, the hurdles, placed one on the top 

 of the other and tied to uprights driven into the ground, 

 closely interlaced with the gorse so that he cannot see 

 through or over the barrier, will form a perfect, retired 

 exercise ground. A plentiful surface dressing of golden- 

 peat-moss-litter will save his legs and feet. In a quiet 

 open impromptu school of this description, away from 

 *' the madding crowd," I have schooled young horses so 

 that they would canter almost on their own ground, circling 

 round a bamboo lance shaft, the point in the ground and 

 the butt in my right hand, without changing legs or altering 

 pace, and they would describe the figure eight with almost 

 mathematical precision, changing leg at every turn without 

 any " aid " from me, a mere inchnation of the body bringing 

 them round the curves. A horse very handy with his legs 

 can readily change them at the corners when making the 

 full right-angle turn, but there is always at first the danger of 

 one not so clever' attempting to execute the turn by crossing 

 the leading leg over the supporting one, when the rider will 

 be lucky to get off with an awkward stumble — a " cropper " 

 will most likely follow. When at this private practice, 

 '' make much of your horse " — that is, caress and speak 

 kindly to him, when he does well ; in fact, the more he is 

 spoken to throughout the lesson, the better for both parties. 

 So good and discriminating is a horse's ear that he soon 

 learns to appreciate the difference between kindly approval 



