132 THE AMERICAN HORSEWOMAN. 



ignorant of the fact that he always turns a little 

 to the right or left according to the leg with 

 which he leads, and that she ought to place her 

 body in a corresponding position. She has but 

 one position in the saddle, — the crooked one 

 already described, — and this she maintains im- 

 movably through all the changes of her horse's 

 gaits. 



Let us now turn to Mrs. Y., who is even a 

 more faulty rider than her companion. She 

 has likewise taken a crosswise position in the 

 saddle ; but having given a peculiar twist to 

 her body so that, by turning her right shoulder 

 backward, she can look to the right, she seems 

 to imagine that by these means she has placed 

 herself squarely upon the saddle. (Fig. 22.) As 

 she is riding a racking horse and seated on a two- 

 pommeled saddle, she holds the reins firmly in her 

 left hand and hy a steady pull on them she bal- 

 ances herself and keeps her horse up to his gait. 

 But this steady pull will soon ruin the tender- 

 ness and sensitiveness of any horse's mouth, and 

 this is the reason why racking horses generally 

 have very hard mouths, many of them requiring 

 to be well held up or supported in their rack by 

 the reins. As this pulling upon the reins also 

 gives considerable support to the rider, many 

 ladies prefer a racking horse. Now notice Mrs. 



