CHAPTER II 



HORSEMANSHIP 



A T whatever age a man begins to ride I 

 l\ should advise him to make a start in a 

 riding-school. There are many simple and 

 elementary but very necessary matters which 

 are best learned in the seclusion of the school, 

 and with no one except the riding-master, or at 

 all events other pupils in like case, present. 

 Apart from the instruction given by the riding- 

 master, whose duty it is to be patient with the 

 beginner, and to encourage a diffidence which 

 only too soon wears off, the regular riding- 

 school horse is a forbearing animal, and one 

 which is not disturbed by the eccentricities of 

 the man or woman on his back. That patient 

 animal has borne with so many riders who have 

 sat in so many different places on his back, and 

 held on to his scanty mane with despairing- 

 clutches, or clung to the bridle to steady the 



