BITTIAG. 65 



skilled horsewomen are familiar — have never been so much 

 as heard o(, or even inquired about The existence of 

 this species of ignorance among lady-riders is not hearsay. 

 I speak from practical knowledge, having proved it upon 

 many different occasions. " Pooh, nonsense ; what do /care 

 about your old leathers ! " laughed a merry-hearted Cork 

 girl to whom I was once striving to explain some necessary 

 matters ; " I just hold on, and let the beast carry me — and 

 what more on earth do I want } " And away she w^ent, 

 helter-skelter, after the hounds, as she spoke — holding on, 

 true enough, to both reins, with a good firm grip ; and the 

 beast did carry her, to some purpose too, up to a big drain 

 — and finding his mouth unfairly dealt with in the taking- 

 off, landed her deftly into it, and ungallantly galloped away. 



With men — those who ride, I mean — ignorance con- 

 cerning bitting ought never to exist, yet I have been fairly 

 astounded at finding out how very little many of them know 

 about the matter. An officer, who was considered a good 

 man to hounds, and who owned a couple of racers to boot, 

 looked actually quite puzzled w^hen it was observed to him 

 one day that he was riding his hunter in a very severe 

 bit (a saw-mouth bridoon, attached to a snaffle), and said, 

 *' By George, I don't know. I suppose my confounded 

 servant put some queer thing or another on him, for the 

 beggar won't go a yard!" He had actually mounted 

 his horse and set out for a day's hunting without so much 

 as casting a glance at the animal's head. Nor was his by 

 any means an isolated case. 



Now a practical word or two about some of the bridles 



F 



