8 RIDING, DRIVING AND KINDRED SPORTS 



able to ride horses other people cannot, and he 

 will also improve the animals he uses. 



The first point, then, is to distinguish be- 

 tween a real firmness of grip and evenness 

 of balance in the saddle, and that sticking on 

 which is a combination of grip in the saddle 

 and grasp of the reins. The amount of help 

 most riders derive from their reins is a 

 matter on which there is a great deal of 

 delusion. There are many men who would 

 scorn the idea of holding on by their horses' 

 heads, but yet who do so habitually all the 

 same. They are, in fact, as much indebted to 

 the bridle for remaining in the saddle, though 

 not so frank about it, as the celebrated cockney : 

 " Not 'old on by 'is 'ead ! Then what the dooce 

 am I to 'old on by?" Nevertheless, for the 

 polo player, or hunting man, it is most desirable 

 that the rider should be independent of his 

 bridle. Indeed, so long as a man needs his 

 bridle to keep him in the saddle, the higher arts 

 of horsemanship are out of his reach. The use 

 of the bridle is to guide and to help the horse, 

 and this can perhaps as often as not be done 

 by leaving him alone judiciously. F'ar more 

 horses are thrown down by a wrong use of the 

 bridle than are helped by it. If any reader 

 doubts the truth of the foregoing, or thinks it 

 is too strongly put, let him forthwith mount 



