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CHAPTER VII. 



BITTING. 



Having now provided yourself with a suitable mount for 

 road and park purposes, and likewise a supply of riding 

 apparel sufficient to answer all purposes until you come to 

 hunt, it will be necessary for you to turn your attention 

 to the interesting subjects of bitting, saddHng, and general 

 turning out. These things ought of necessity to precede 

 the actual riding — for you certainly cannot mount your 

 steed until he has been saddled and bridled, and to know 

 how to accomplish this yourself is in the highest degree 

 important. 



In the present day, when equestrianism is not only a 

 popular amusement but amounts almost to a craze, it is 

 astonishing to find the amount of ignorance that prevails 

 among riders upon subjects with which they ought to be at 

 least tolerably well acquainted, before laying claim to the 

 terms " horsemen " and " horsewomen." In no department 

 that I can think of, or name, is this lamentable want of 

 knowledge so clearly displayed as in the important one of 

 bitting. That ladies are not, as a rule, very conversant 

 with the subject is scarcely to be wondered at, for most 

 lady-riders give no thought to anything on earth save the 



