THE BARB AND THE BRIDLE. 19 



continued after the horse is advanced to the stage of breaking 

 where the trainer begins to fit him for a lady, and carried on until 

 she rides him, he will be far from a pleasant mount to her, because, 

 missing the support of the man's legs, the horse will not understand 

 the light and delicate ones which the lady will use. It is necessary, 

 therefore, that the breaker should accustom his charge readily to 

 obey the slightest indication of the rider's will, and then ride him in 

 a side-saddle, in precisely the same way as he will afterwards be 

 ridden by the lady. 



I remember once seeing a man, really a capital rider in his own 

 way, giving a lady a lesson on a horse of her own which he had 

 broken for her. Both master and pupil were sorely puzzled — the 

 former because the horse would not obey the hand and leg of the 

 rider, as directed by the master, and the pupil, by finding that all 

 she was domg produced an effect diametrically opposite to that which 

 was intended. Perhaps the horse, too, was as much puzzled to know 

 what to be at as either rider or master. 



The animal was a very shapely chesnut, nearly thoroughbred, very 

 good-tempered, but full of courage. Evidently he was unaccus- 

 tomed to carry a lady, and was beginning to give indications that his 

 temper was getting up. The object was to canter "him to the right 

 round the school, " going large," as it is technically called. He had 

 trotted to the other hand well enough, and the young lady had 

 ridden hmi fairly ; but when turned to the reverse hand, and the 

 word " canter" was given, he evidently missed the sui3port afforded 

 by the legs of a male rider. When pressed gently forward to a 

 shortened rein, he stepped very high in his trot. " Touch him on 

 the right shoulder with the whip sharply, miss," said the riding 

 master. In answer to the sharp cut ot the whip, the horse jump ed 

 off passionately in a canter, with his near legs first — a dangerous 

 thing when going round the school to the right. " Stop him , miss," 

 said the preceptor ; " take him into the corner, bend his head to the 

 right. Now the leg and whip again." The same result followed — 

 the lady flurried as well as her horse. The riding master at last 

 took the lady off, and mounted the horse himself ; but he rode with a 

 man's seat, not a woman's. The horse cantered collectedly and weli 



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