Seat 89 



walks on without further thought. Something in him 

 takes his body in hand and keeps it upright and balanced 

 without mental exertion. 



Now two thirds or rather more of the weight of a 

 man's body is above the hips. He is really a more or less 

 top-heavy animal. His base — that is, when he is walking 

 or standing, his feet — is comparatively small; it is, too, 

 smaller and farther below his centre of gravity when he is 

 upright than when he is seated in a chair or in the saddle. 

 When he walks his arms swing naturally at his side as an 

 assistance to the maintenance of equilibrium. If he at- 

 tempts to hold his hands against his sides — an action 

 analogous to holding his legs against the saddle — it 

 requires an effort of mind and destroys all ease and grace of 

 body. I hold that it is no more essential to sit a horse 

 by grip than it is to grip something with the hands when 

 walking. One can as well learn to sit a horse by balance 

 as to walk by balance. 



The sooner in life this is learned, the better. All writers 

 advise one to begin young by riding bareback on a pony, 

 and this is quite right, but not because it teaches to hold 

 on by grip. The result is the very reverse : it teaches one 

 to ride by balance, and will, if it is not spoiled by riding- 

 school training later, produce a perfect seat. That Ameri- 

 cans as a rule have most graceful seats is due to their riding 

 by balance, in which they are mostly self-taught, beginning 

 as farm-lads riding work-horses to and from pasture bare- 

 backed. 



Only a short time ago I was discussing this question with 

 a well-known rider of the Radnor Hunt, near Philadelphia. 



