OR, The Turn Out. 



89 



RIDING. 



* Hold fast, sit sure," 



IDINGr is said to be the poetry of motion ; 

 anyway, it is the most invigorating and 

 healthful of exercises. We are taught that 

 horsemanship emanates from Egypt, and 

 that Egypt was the great and original 

 breeding place for horses ; we are likewise 

 told that Soloman obtained all his horses 

 from Egypt, the price averaging 160 

 Shekels, or about £18 English money, 

 for each animal. According to the Greek 

 writers, Sesostris was the first who taught 

 men to tame and ride horses. Six hundred 

 years after Solomon, Xenophon says that Persia possessed no 

 horses before the age of Cyrus, but afterwards produced the 

 finest in the world, that all Persians were horsemen, in fact 

 the very name of Persia became associated with horsemanship, 

 and the present of a Persian horse was a gift indeed. The 

 Greeks became famous for their horsemanship about the time 

 of, or just before, the Trojan war (1192 B.C.), hence the 

 Grecian fables of the Centaurs, or as Ovid calls them semi- 

 huma-ii horses, and semi- equine men. 



The Half Breeds of North America* are considered the 

 most extraordinary and wonderful horsemen in the world. 

 In their hunting with the lasso and trapping, and other 

 expeditions on horseback, the saddle and bridle were not 

 thought of; sometimes a piece of fish skin or strip of 

 animal's hide to guide with, and a similar strip-noose for 

 the toe, was sufficient to act as a stirrup, or a plain cord 

 of the same material for a bridle and bit, and a piece of 

 cloth or hide underneath the seat. In fact, they have 

 been known to mount the wildest steed, and give him full 



• See HhTstration. The Author's " Centaur." 



