14 HORSEMANSHIP. 



in pages 7 and 8., the Colonel writes, " The soldier 

 who is compelled to turn to the right, by word of 

 command, when the correct indication is unanswered, 

 in despair throws his hand to the right. The conse- 

 quence is, that no horse is a good soldier's horse till 

 he has been trained to turn on the wrong rein." 



*^ Without the same excuse for it, the same may be 

 said of all ladies and all civilians who ride with one 

 hand only, and of almost all who ride with two hands ; 

 for, strange to say, in turning, both hands are generally 

 passed to the right or left ; and I have known many 

 of what may be called the most perfect straightforioard 

 hands ; that is, men who, on the turf, would hold the 

 most difficult three-year-old to the steady stroke of the 

 two-mile course, and place him as a winner to half a 

 length ; who, in the hunting-field, would ride the hot- 

 test or the most phlegmatic made hunter with equal 

 skill, through all difficulties of ground, and over every 

 species of fence, with admirable precision and equality 

 of hand ; or who, on the exercise-ground, would place 

 his broken charger on his haunches, and make him 

 walk four miles an hour, canter six and a half, trot 

 eight and a half and gallop eleven, without being out 

 in either pace a second of time ; but who have marred 



