xvi INTRODUCTION 



masculinity. One can have just as neat an ankle, just 

 as graceful a figure, even a tiny mid- Victorian waist, and 

 still ride hard to hounds and pound the whole field. 

 The woman who can be a "pal" to her husband, ac- 

 company him in his sports, and tramp and ride with 

 him cross-country, is apt to hold him longer and be 

 less often in the divorce courts than the woman whose 

 chief attraction is looking pretty, playing a good game 

 of cards, and dancing the latest jazz. She will not 

 only be a healthier, happier, more companionable wife, 

 but a stronger, healthier mother, with stronger children, 

 and a younger-looking more cheerful grandmother. 



Unfortunately, in this country, the more intellectual 

 people of high mental, moral, and spiritual standing 

 do not realize that sport offers anything but purely 

 physical advantages. If a man or a woman are keen 

 about sport, or lovers of hunting and horses, they are 

 accredited with having brains for nothing else. At 

 dinners their non-horsey neighbors, in order to keep the 

 ball of conversation rolling, feel in duty bound to rack 

 their brains and remember something about their 

 aunt's grandmother's brougham horse who once jumped 

 a fence. To say the least, this sort of thing is an in- 

 sult to one's intelligence. Yet, that is the average 

 serious-minded American's attitude toward the horse- 

 man or horsewoman. To be dubbed "horsey," in this 

 country, is to have people imply that you have the in- 

 telligence of a cabbage. As a matter of pure fact, this 

 attitude is unfortunately sometimes justified. We are 

 a nation of specialists, and although our average of 

 horsemanship is very much lower than in England, we 

 are, nevertheless, able to produce a few cracks, who 

 do think, breathe, and eat nothing but horse, and there- 

 fore can beat England's best at their own game. 



