8o RIDING FOR LADIES. 



with the other — an attention which, as a pleasing novelty, 

 she evidently much appreciated. Findmg her slightly 

 intractable during the ride homeward, I once more lightly 

 took up the curb. It maddened her in a moment. She 

 turned wildly round, twisted about with a rotatory motion 

 most bewildering and unpleasant, ran me against a cart, 

 and behaved altogether so outrageously that it required my 

 very utmost skill, confidence, and temper to restore her 

 equanimity, and steer her safely to our destination. On 

 dismounting I observed to the groom who had come to 

 fetch her, that considering the amount of excitement 

 through which she had passed, it was wonderful that she 

 had not sweated. His answer was that she was always fed 

 upon cooked food (a pet theory of mine, to which I shall 

 devote a chapter by-and-by), and added that the horse 

 which he himself was riding — a remarkably fine four-year- 

 old — derived its chief sustenance from boiled barley. 



I shall now close my chapter upon bitting. That it has 

 been a horribly dry one I cannot hope to find contradicted, 

 but I felt that its instructions ought to come in just where I 

 have introduced them, and they will be better understood, 

 no doubt, when the pupil shall have learned thoroughly 

 how to ride. No lady's education can be called anything 

 like complete (with regard to equine matters) until she 

 perfectly understands the principles of bitting, and can, 

 moreover, saddle and bridle her own horses without the 

 aid of a groom. I shall give instructions concerning these 

 matters in another chapter. 



