HOW TO RIDE. 



57 



CHAPTER X. 

 / 



HOW TO RIDE. 



IN all of the above written I have been supposing my 

 reader to be a horseman, and I think if he has gone on 

 training with his horse, by this time he ought to be ; but 

 there are some general rules that I may as well lay down, 

 that he may understand more fully what is required of a 

 horseman's seat and hand. Let us begin right at the 

 fountain-head, and take a boy old or young. I would put 

 him on a common pad saddle (no tree), and a snaffle 

 bridle; tell him not to turn out his toes, and to squeeze 

 the horse with his knees, and let him go without any 

 further instructions. Having no martingale, he will get 

 very little support from the rein, and he will have to 

 depend on balancing himself; this will unconsciously 

 bring him to the proper adjustment of his forces for the 

 balance, and if he has one little bit of horse in him, he 

 will soon become a rider, and, in after-life, if he keeps it 

 up, one of the very best ; for this very unconscious adapta- 

 tion of his forces, which comes naturally to a boy, but 

 has to be forced in a man, gives him that elasticity so 

 necessary, so comfortable, and so much more difficult in 

 an adult to obtain, and to him the after-education is just 

 as easy as possible. But for a gentleman unaccustomed 

 to ride, we must give him additional support, in the 

 shape, first, of a regular saddle. The best and most 

 popular one is the old English hunting saddle, so modi- 

 fied as to become the regular road saddle by being a little 

 shortened in the seat ; the former is about eighteen inches 

 i * 



