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CHAPTER XV. 



HINTS TO "AMAZONES." 



Horse Exercise for Women Invaluable — Women as a rule ride badly — Why ? — Not Sufficient Practice or Instruction — 

 Seldom Hear the Truth^Some Never Learn How to Sit ; or How to Guide — Some Sit Fast and Inelegantly — Qualifications 

 Essential — Physically Fit — In Active Condition — Wear a Suitable Dress — Have a Proper Saddle — A Trained Horse — A 

 Competent Teacher — Preparatory Physical Training Sketched — Dress Described in Detail — Boots — Chemise — Trousers — 

 Corset — Head-dress — How to Hold the Habit — The Side-saddle, with Illustration — Dimensions of Side-saddle — Description 

 of Third Pommel — Stirrup-leather, both Patterns — Princess of Wales's Pattern of Side-Saddle, Illustration — Girths Important 

 — Crupper, when Useful — The Horse — Important Points of — Height to be in Proportion to that of Rider — Paces — Queen 

 Victoria's Opinion of a Lady's Horse — Temperament — Age — Mounting: First Position, Illustration; Second Position ; Third 

 Position ; Fourth Position, and Descriptions — Common Errors — Fifth (Bad) Position — Riding Boldly and Badly — Reins, 

 Management of — Requires Manual and Verbal Explanations — Illustration, Reins in Both Hands ; see also Coloured 

 Picture for Seat and Reins — Trotting, Illustration — Cantering — Galloping — Necessary — How to — Proper Preparation—" 

 Leaping — Every Amazone should Learn How — "Vieille Moustache's" Instruction for Water-Jump — Importance of Exercise 

 for a Lady's Horse — A Lady's Hunter, Illustration — Etiquette of Gentleman Riding with Lady — Anecdote of the Duke of 

 Wellington — Improved Leading-rein, with Illustration — Other Hints — Treat your Horse as a Friend — Observe if he is 

 uncomfortable — How to Mount without Assistance. 



Horse exercise, for women who are fit for it, is a healthy, innocent, and social amusement ; 

 when performed in perfection it is also an outward and unmistakable sign of wealth if not of 

 position. It is not, therefore, necessary to write a long chapter to recommend the equestrian 

 art to the attention of the mothers and daughters of England. Whatever prejudices may have 

 existed against equestrianism for women in the minds of the manufacturing middle class before 

 1830 — that year of social as well as political revolution — have long since disappeared. 



In Hyde Park a hundred riding-habits are to be seen where there was not one before the 

 date of Earl Russell's Reform Bill — so Lord Vivian, a very competent witness, told a Committee 

 of the House of Lords. At every English watering-place the mob of amazones, ill-dressed and 

 well, moderately and execrably horsed, is quite appalling to the observer who does not enjoy 

 the ignorance which is bliss. 



" Not to put too fine a point upon it," the majority of horsewomen — or, to adopt the 

 more convenient word, ainasones — ride abominably ; so badly that it must be presumed, look- 

 ing at the rarity of accidents, that Ihey enjoy the benefit of the special providence said to 

 preside over the lives of idiots and drunkards. Perhaps the secret of their immunity is to be 

 found in the hard-worked character of the horses they generally ride, or the watcliful care of 

 attendant grooms or friends. 



The reason why women ride so badly is not far to seek. A man may learn to ride by 

 tumbling off until he learns how to hold on, and by imitating the good horsemen he meets in 

 his rides, friends or strangers ; because a man's is a natural seat ; elegance is not indispensable ; 

 and last, though not least, he has ten times the opportunity of practice that any woman living 

 in a civilised country can possibly enjoy. A young man can ride any horse, in any dress, with 

 or without a saddle, in town or country ; without losing social position, he may make friends 



