The Use of the Bridle. 



261 



Three or four tabs sewn on the snaffle rein at such distances as will bring the hands into 

 the right place, that is, just in front of the pommel, while the elbows touch the hips, will be 

 found useful. The use of this snaffle bridle is twofold, yet simple. First, to guide the hack. 

 For this purpose it is held in both hands ; when the rider wants to go to the left he is to pull 

 the left rein, and when to the right the right rein, in open defiance of the rules of the school, 

 where he is presumed to be always carrying a sword in his right hand. The other use of the 

 snaffle rein, with a properly selected horse, is— hear it with horror, riding-school rulers— to 

 hold on by ; an expedient entirely opposed to the theory of good horsemanship, although 



ENGLISH SADDLE. 



largely practised by great men and even great horsemen in their declining years. For ten 

 years before his death the great Duke of Wellington always held on by the bridle, and sometimes 

 by the pommel as well. It is a practice not to be commended, but it is better than falhng 

 off; just as crutches are better than not walking at all. The boy who attempts to support 

 himself by leaning on the bridle or catching hold of the pommel (except when a horse is 

 rearing and plunging) deserves a sharp cut from the teacher's whip ; but where the subject is 

 a valetudinarian of forty years, he must be taught to stick on by holding on ; without he 

 feels safe he will derive no benefit from his first equestrian constitutionals. Indeed, it was the 

 maxim of a most accomplished horseman that it was better to hold on by the pommel and 

 the cantle too than to tumble off 



When a grown man, after the time when his bones are set and his muscles assume new 

 duties with difficulty, takes to horsemanship, either as an heroic remedy for indisposition of 



