CillLUKF.M. 265 



day to day ; six half-liour rides on six successive days will do infuiitcly more towards moulding 

 the muscles to the equestrian form than three lessons of two hours each with an interval of 

 a day between. 



When the services of a competent teacher cannot be had, the next best aid is that of a 

 good model to imitate : not a soldier, although some of the very finest horsemen are found 

 amongst cavalry officers, because a soldier has to follow rules which do not affect a civilian ; 

 not a huntsman, because to the best huntsman the horse is only a machine, and one hand is 

 always occupied with the horn or the whip ; but from watching a clever colt-breaker or 

 accomplished professional steeplechase rider very useful lessons may be learned. 



It may safely be assumed that any man of forty, not disqualified by physical defects or 

 oppressed with excessive corpulence, may, with patience, perseverance, and pluck without 

 rashness, learn how to ride and how to enjoy riding any well-broken horse, without looking 

 ridiculous, after from fifty to si.xty well-arranged rides, within the space of three months. 

 But it is a sort of exercise that cannot be taken up and abandoned for a long interval with 

 impunity. Even practised horsemen suffer severely after a certain time of life, if, after a long 

 cessation from horse exercise, they attempt the feats of their youth ; feverishness, indigestion, 

 a fluttering heart, a disordered liver, remind them that for long days the man requires preparation 

 as much as the horse. 



A great deal of the comfort of riding depends on proper garments for the lower limbs. 

 Theoretically, there is no riding-dress so comfortable as well-made breeches and boots, either 

 of the modern cavalry or the plain "butcher" pattern. The next best substitute is a pair of 

 leather overalls, fastened at the sides by buttons, not with springs. But those whose age and 

 position would make boots for riding in a town objectionable must pay attention to their 

 trousers. The material for riding-trousers should be thick woollen, and may be dark — there 

 are some very nice partly-elastic materials in dark colours — they must be constructed by a 

 real trouser-maker, who will make you sit down when he measures you, and they must be 

 worn with straps, whether straps are in fashion or not. Wellington boots are the best with 

 trousers; shoes are quite out of the question. Trousers without straps, slipping up the leg 

 of a timid horseman, are an acute form of unnecessary misery, which was the fashion for 

 many years up to 1877, when straps again appeared on the trousers of the more correct 

 riders in Rotten Row. 



EQUITATION FOR CHILDREN : ADDRESSED TO MOTHERS. 



Irreparable injury has been done to young children of both se.xes by the ignorance of parents 

 nurses, and grooms in attendance on babies riding in panniers. Children should not be put 

 into panniers (except in a reclining position, supported by pillows as in a bed) until they have 

 attained a certain degree of strength. To a thoughtful person there is something frightful 

 in seeing a couple of infants bobbing their heads with every step of a pony or donkey, like 

 a porcelain mandarin, and so continued until the period fixed for the constitutional ride is 

 completed ; for these poor little things, if they have the sense, have not the strength to complain 

 after half an hour's jolting. Children in pannieis look very pretty, and if they are strong, 

 and at least five years old, the air and e.xercise may prove useful ; but weak children and 

 infants of tender years are nuich more liable to suffer in brain and in spine than to derive 

 any benefit from the shaking they are sure to endure. 



In all cases the panniers should be of the modern shape, that is, constructed so that the 

 I I 



