48 THE BARB AND THE BRIDLE. 



long stirrup ; that his seat is insecure ; that the bumping gives a 

 horse a sore back ; and that, except a sailor and a tailor, a dragoon 

 officer is about the worst horseman to be found. This is not exactly 

 the place to enter into any controversy on the subject ; but I may as 

 well observe at once, and I do so because I am sure the old soldiers are 

 not altogether despised by the ladies, even in this non -military 

 country, that all the foregoing are so many mistakes. A dragoon, 

 any time within my memory, rode just the same length as a man 

 does over a country — that is to say that, measuring the cavalry 

 man's leather and iron by the length of liis arm and hand, which is 

 the right length for a civilian, you have exactly the cavalry regula- 

 tion length. The stirrup of a lancer indeed is somewhat shorter 

 than that used by most hunting men. Finally, an acquaintance 

 with the habitue's- of such places as Melton would prove to unbe- 

 lievers in the riding of cavalry officers that the names of most of 

 the men who go to the front in the hunting-field, and keep there, 

 ^re to be found in the " Army List." I have been tempted thus to 

 digress by having referred to the military riding school, from which 

 in former days, most, if not all, the riding masters who taught 

 ladies came. Now, although I stand up (as in duty bound) for the 

 military system of riding jjer se, it does not produce the right man 

 to teach a woman to ride, if the experience of the preceptor has been 

 acquired in the riding school only. Excellent as is our system (or, 

 rather, the German system, for it is imported from the Prussian 

 service), for making a man a first-class dragoon, as regards anything 

 connected with a lady's seat or the principle of her balance, it is 

 useless. 



As regards her hands, or the application of the "aids" of the 

 manege, it is highly beneficial, because nothing can be more clear or 

 concise than the simple rules laid down in military equitation for the 

 apphcation of the " helps," by which a horse's easy movement is con- 

 trolled and regulated. It was principally to the want of men who 

 could teach a lady to ride, however, that the absence of a trotting in 

 the side saddle was to be attributed "lang syne." 



It is altogether different now. Riding masters took to riding 

 .across country, and their daughters took to it also, naturally. 



