HORSEMANSHIP 183 



manege. And curiously enough amongst these 

 gentlemen you generally find school riding 

 looked upon with scorn. Their idea is that you 

 may show a lad how to hold his reins and to get 

 into his saddle, but he has got to stop there of 

 his own effort, and whatever there is of horseman- 

 ship to learn afterwards it will all come by ex- 

 perience, which being translated means by 

 tumbling about as the speakers have done. 

 They despise the manege as so much circus work, 

 in which they are wrong. I shall have more to 

 say about this later on. 



I have shown how difficult it is for the 

 ordinary well-qualified horseman, with his ' do 

 this ' and ' don't do the other,' to teach a beginner 

 the Noble Art of Horsemanship. Surely it is not 

 necessary then to insist on the difficulties of 

 teaching it in a Book. It is indeed impossible to 

 teach horsemanship in a book, though many 

 valuable hints are to be found in the books that 

 have been written on the subject. 



It has always been somewhat of a mystery to 

 me that many people should think, as apparently 

 they do, that grooms are necessarily good riders. 

 As a matter of fact, and as a class, they are bad 

 horsemen. The attribute which they possess in 

 the most marked degree is nerve. A strong seat 

 and light hands are seldom found amongst them. 

 Nor is this to be wondered at ; the opportunities 

 of the majority of them are few and in many 

 cases are non-existent. A man cannot learn 

 much about horsemanship when his riding^^is 



