FORWARD STROKES. 



13 



it must first be tried at a walk, and afterwards at 

 the canter and gallop. 



3. To the near side, or tinder the ponys neck. — 

 The difficulty of this stroke, like that of the preceding 

 one, increases with the angle at which the ball is hit. 

 When wishing to hit at or nearly at right angles 

 to the direction in which we are riding, we can make 

 the stroke much easier, if we have got time to do 



Fig. 5. — Hitting under ponys neck, to save goal. 



SO, by turning the pony slightly to the left, in which 

 case it will merely be a modification of the forward 

 stroke. The difficulty of hitting at, or nearly at 

 a right angle, consists in clearing the pony's fore 

 legs, to do which we have got to lean very far 

 forward. Even the best players are apt to fail by 

 hitting the pony's fore legs with stick or ball, or 

 with both. It is, however, a useful stroke when the 

 ball is in front of goal (Fig. 5), and when we 



