30 RIDING FOR LADIES. 



will go by before you can acquire that confidence which is 

 one of the first and chiefest necessities of a good and easy 

 rider. 



While on this subject, I may say that a timid horse- 

 woman will never be a successful one. She may just 

 as well give up the pursuit at once, for her rides will 

 always be a punishment to her. With some, timidity is a 

 natural weakness which cannot be got over, but with the 

 majority it is the result of early impressions — an un- 

 comfortable, unfading recollection of having learnt upon 

 an unsuitable mount. 



To illustrate what I say: most children are fond of 

 driving, because they have never associated the pastime 

 with other than pleasurable sensations. Neither risk nor 

 discomfort is, as a rule, connected with the simple carriage 

 exercise to which so many young persons are from baby- 

 hood accustomed ; but, give a child his first experience of 

 it by driving him in an open phaeton, behind a shying, 

 kicking, or backing horse — one that winds up a long list 

 of vagaries by spilling the vehicle and its occupants into 

 an unpleasant dyke, and if that child does not carry his 

 primary impressions through many a long course of after 

 drives, I am a less sapient observer of human nature than I 

 am generally accredited with being. 



A lady's horse, to be suitable, should be perfect in 

 temper and training. Beauty may be dispensed with, 

 decided acquisition though it undoubtedly is, but disposition 

 and education may not. They are absolute necessities 

 which cannot be done without, although a really skilled 



