THE MAN'f< SEAT. 119 



without any girths at all. If you are not tall enough to 

 put your foot fairly in the stirrup, use a horse-block, or, 

 better still, a piece of solid wood about eighteen inches 

 ]jigh, that can be moved about anywhere. 



Young men should learn to leap into the saddle by 

 placing both hands on the can tie, as the horse moves. 

 1 have seen Daly, the steeplechaser, who was a little 

 man, do this often in the hunting-field, before he broke 

 his thigh. 



With respect to the best model for a seat, I recom- 

 mend the very large class who form the best customers 

 of riding-school masters in the great towns of England, 

 I mean the gentlemen from eighteen to eight-and- 

 Iwenty, who begin to ride as soon as they have the 

 jneans and the opportunity, to study the style of the 

 first-class steeplechase jockeys and gentlemen riders 

 in the hunting-field whenever they have the opportunity. 

 Almost all riding-masters are old dragoons, and what 

 they teach is good as far as it goes, as to general appear- 

 ance and carriage of the body, but generally the military 

 notions about the use of a rider's arms and legs are 

 utterly wrong. 



On this point we cannot have a better authority than 

 tliat of the late Captain Nolan, who served in the Aus- 

 trian, Hungarian, and in the English cavalry in India, 

 and who studied horsemanship in Eussia, and all other 

 European countries celebrated for their cavalry. He 

 says— 



" The difference between a school (viz. an ordinary 

 military horseman) and a real horseman is this, the 

 first depends upon guiding and managing his horse 

 for maintaining his seat; the second depends upon his 

 seat for controlling and guiding his horse. At a trot 

 the school rider, instead of lightly rising to the action 



