S6 RIDING FOR LADIES. 



mend all lady riders to adopt a perfectly plain stirrup, 

 such as is used by men, only of course smaller. A neat 

 little racing stirrup served me faithfully for years, and I 

 cannot advocate any other. Safety stirrups are perpetually 

 getting out of order, and my experience of even the best 

 of them is that they are liable to catch the foot and 

 confine it in a dangerous manner, which the plain stirrup 

 never does. 



To ride with a slipper, even for a very young beginner, is 

 strongly to be condemned. To allow children to use it is 

 simply to train them to ride from it — thus sowing the 

 seeds of a most pernicious practice. It feels so snug and 

 comfortable under the foot that there is an irresistible 

 desire to rest and dwell upon it : an evil of which I shall 

 hereafter have occasion to speak. 



Having now said all that I consider useful concerning 

 saddles and bridles, I think it will be expedient to give a 

 few instructions about putting them on ; for, as I have 

 already said, a lady or gentleman who cannot do this 

 without the aid of a servant has yet (no matter how 

 accomplished in every other way) something very impor- 

 tant to learn. 



To bridle a horse, go quietly up to him, holding the 

 headstall in your hand. Make much of him for a moment 

 or two before putting it on : not at all because you think 

 that he is going to fight against it — no lady's horse would 

 be guilty of doing such a thing — but because it is a nice 

 and right habit, and one to be put in practice upon every 

 reasonable occasion. The way in which unthinking grooms 



