64 RIDING FOR LADIES. 



pleasure of the motion, and the fit of their habits and 

 gloves. They have undergone a certain description of 

 superficial training, which just enables them to know how 

 to sit, and how to hold the reins between their fingers, but 

 the real pleasure of being thoroughly en rapport with their 

 mount — knowing what bit he will go best in, and feeling 

 conscious that he is not enduring torture from being 

 wrongly bridled or saddled — are things altogether denied 

 them. It is precisely the same principle on which ladies 

 execute showy pieces on the piano, without at the same 

 time having the smallest knowledge of the theory of music, 

 or any idea of why it is that pressure upon the pedals 

 is capable of altering the sound. It is a sorry fact, but 

 a certain one, that nine-tenths of the ladies who ride in the 

 Row — pulling equally, as they often do, upon both reins — 

 would stare at you in helpless amazement, or blush 

 " celestial rosy red," if asked to describe the difference in 

 action between the curb bit and the snaffle. They do not 

 know. Nobody has ever told them, because it has never 

 occurred to them to ask. They are simply aware that 

 there are two leathers, attached by some unknown means 

 to the horse's head, and that they are supposed to hold 

 these nicely between their fingers, and look as charming as 

 they can ; but what the leathers are for, or why there 

 are two of them, or yet, why some other ladies of their 

 acquaintance ride with a single rein while they have been 

 given a double one, are things of which they have not the 

 very faintest notion. Lip-straps, cheek-pieces, throat-lashes, 

 ports, cannons, &c., terms with which even moderately 



