Paces and Age. 331 



The importance of walking well in a lady's horse cannot be exaggerated. A horse that 

 will jog and cannot walk fast and in good form may be a useful conveyance, but is not a 

 lady's horse. Some years ago one of the sensations of Rotten Row was a very handsome 

 actress, past the first bloom of youth, a fine figure, a welter weight — say well on the other 

 side of thirteen stone, for she was tall — who rode a magnificent sorrel chestnut of perfect 

 manners. This horse and lady never within the memory of the oldest frequenter of the Row 

 went off a walk. But what a walk ! — stately, stepping out of the ground as if he were carry- 

 ing an empress ! 



Of the canter enough has been said in a previous chapter on horsemanship. The lad)''s 

 horse must trot in perfect time, with that shoulder-action that scarcely stirs the rider from the 

 saddle. The most accomplished amazone on a harsh, high-trotting horse presents a repulsive 

 figure ; equally offensive is a girl jogging along beside her unmindful parent on a little 

 shambling cob. 



Temperament of the right degree — free, apparently fiery, but without a particle of violence 

 — is an essential quality in the perfect lady's horse. A slug, requiring constant application 

 of the whip, is detestable ; equally detestable and alarming is a hot-tempered brute, always 

 struggling, sidling, prancing, snorting for a gallop, trotting when it should canter, cantering 

 when it should trot, never at rest for a moment. The golden mean will be found in high 

 courage, tempered by the docility obtained by careful breaking and good sense, kept in 

 perfect tune by regular exercise. 



Men may put up with and ride down a considerable excess of high spirits and of tricks 

 which uncorrected would grow into vice ; but although a fine horsewoman subduing and 

 settling down a rearing, kicking, plunging four-year-old, fresh from the stable, is a fine sight 

 once in a way, that should no more be the daily duty of a lady than riding a steeplechaser 

 or driving a tandem. A professional horsewoman is quite in her place on such an animal. 



In the same direction, it is essential that a lady's horse should be free from the slightest 

 suspicion of the unsoundness in feet and fore-legs, or those tricks of stumbling, that lead to 

 falls. Although there are horses that go stumbling and dropping for years without falling, 

 they are not the sort one would like to see under one's sweetheart, wife, sister, or daughter. 



To summarise : The lady's horse must be elastic and easy in paces, free from all vice, a 

 willing mover, carrying its own head, and as handsome as can be had for the limit of price. 



As to age, an animal not less than six years old is to be preferred, when coltish tricks 

 have passed away ; and if still sound, springy, elastic, and high-couraged, not to be rejected, 

 but rather to be preferred, at nine or ten years old. There are first-rate ladies' horses v\'hich 

 number not much less than twenty years. The legs, feet, and temperament, not the teeth, 

 are the points to be most considered in choosing a lady's horse. 



But when a young horse can be found apparently possessing all the qualifications for a 

 lady's use, either unbroken or as yet unaccustomed to the hands and the habit of a woman, it 

 is well worth while to go to the trouble and expense of having it broken by a competent 

 riding-master — the best of whom are to be found, out of London, at cavalry barracks. Three 

 months is not an unreasonable time for the full course of instruction of a well-bred colt 

 intended to carry a lady. 



MOUNTING. 



Mounting for the man, or rather the male who is not going to be a soldier, is not an 

 important matter. The details may be deferred until substantial skill in the management of a 



