302 The Book of the Horse. 



If a horse shies without turning round, ahvays pull him from the object of his alarm. If 

 he tries to rub you against a wall or tree, pull his head towards it. If a horse is really and 

 justifiably alarmed, as, for instance, at a threshing machine or bicycle, dismount, soothe, and 

 lead him past. 



A FEW RULES. 



Make it your habit to fondle your horse before 

 mounting, so as to accustom him to your voice. 



Always approach his head first. 



Do not touch your horse's side with your toe in 

 mounting. In dismounting have only the toe in the 



The bridle-hand is the left hand, but both hands 

 ought to be equally the bridle-hands of a civilian. 



The whip-hand is the right hand. 



The near side is the left side, as you sit and face the 

 horse's ears. The off side is the right hand. 



stirrup, if you are tall enough to toucli the ground with I All horses have a strong side ; you must turn a restive 



the other foot. If you are not, throw both feet out of the 

 stirrups at the same time, and dismount holding the reins 

 and mane in one hand, the cantle of the saddle in the 

 other. 



Do not trot until you have learned to walk, or gallop 

 until you are at home in the trot. 



horse on his weak side. 



A horse with fine shoulders and flexible action is 

 easier to sit, even when plunging, than a more placid 

 horse that carries his saddle badly. 



Never begin to fight with a horse unless you have 

 breath and strength enough to win. 



rOLO. 



The game of polo has, since this book was commenced, attained such importance among 

 the class of horsemen to whom the price of a few ponies more or less is of no consequence, 

 that I need make no excuse for adding a few lines on this latest development of good horse- 

 manship ; for although only ponies are employed, polo players to excel must learn to gallop, 

 stop, and turn at speed with a precision not required at any other horse exercise, unless it 

 be a bout with single-sticks, instead of sabres, as practised by the cavalry officers in the great 

 riding-schools at Vienna and Pesth. 



Polo demands skill as well as strength, indeed, more skill than strength, although a man 

 must be in first-rate condition to go through a well-contested game without distress. Polo, 

 since 1873, has become a familiar game in every cavalry regiment in the kingdom; good 

 polo ponies fetch fabulous prices. The London clubs included, in 1874, civilians as well as 

 soldiers, scions of the highest aristocracy and sons of the " newest rich men " — to use a French 

 phrase — who not only played every week of the season at Lillie Bridge, but introduced this 

 new form of "jousting," as a rival amusernent to the "Tournament of Doves," within the 

 exclusive precincts of Hurlingham. Yet this game, new to England, has been played in the 

 East for at least a thousand years. In the "Arabian Nights" we read that a king, afflicted 

 with leprosy, was cured by playing at " Mall " (that is, polo) with a stick, in the handle of 

 which some subtle medicine had been concealed, which penetrated into the king's hands 

 when he was heated and perspiring with the game. 



It is not a slight recommendation of polo, as an exercise of the horseman's art, that a 

 very hard, bruising rider across country, one of those thrusting fellows who are equally 

 ready to risk their own and their horse's necks and limbs if they can only be first, would find 

 a great deal to learn beyond blind pluck before they could make even a decent appearance 

 at polo. 



