RIDING. 253 



steam at the rate of from fifteen to fifty miles ai> hour, 

 but there is no pleasure in driving one's own hired' 

 horse at a pace of less than ten miles in the same space 

 of time. Being thus hurried away, Pegasus-like, a just 

 equivalent to sitting in the open air when the wind blows, 

 in sailor's phrase, a : stiff breeze,' and to do this at sunset 

 would be thought the very extreme of imprudence. There 

 can be no objection to any man's riding with all the speed 

 his horse can make ; but it were wisdom to shield himself 

 against a breeze of his own raising. 



798. " Equitation, or riding on horseback, is a different 

 exercise from the preceding ; and fast riding is not only 

 active exercise, but severe labor. This is one of the most 

 noble, and manly, and healthful exercises that can be 

 imagined ; and as it formed a part of the education of the 

 Spanish youth, so ought it to be made a part of the educa- 

 tion of the young of both sexes, in our country. Riding on 

 horseback, exercises every muscle, and every organ in the 

 body ; and causes the blood to circulate so freely that in 

 cold weather this is one of the most comfortable ways in 

 which a person can travel, provided he can bear the exer- 

 cise without fatigue. This may seem paradoxical to those 

 who never have made the experiment, but the evidence of 

 those who have tested it for several successive years, in all 

 weathers, and at all seasons, has established the fact to 

 my own satisfaction, that at the pace of seven or eight 

 miles an hour, no person would feel cold in unusually 

 severe winter weather."- Philosophy of Livi?ig, by Caleb 

 Ticknor, A. M., M. D., Harper's Family Library, No. 

 77, p. 202. 



799. We will add to the foregoing judicious remarks of 

 Dr. Ticknor, that riding on horseback, with agreeable 

 company, and on a spirited, well-trained animal, does 

 afford exercise at once agreeable, exhilarating, and 

 manly. It also has the advantage of bringing all the prin- 

 cipal muscles into play, and of shaking the viscera in 

 such a manner as to give a vigorous action to the pipes 

 and strainers throughout the system, and perhaps to de- 

 tach any little adhesions that might be taking place among 

 them. 



800. A journey on horseback, for a nervous invalid, is 

 undoubtedly one of the best means of restoration, not how 



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