42 RIDING, DRIVING AND KINDRED SPORTS 



vanishing pack, " I think, gentlemen, you 

 should come out on Sunday afternoons and 

 practise gate opening." This lady had a mar- 

 vellous tact for getting over a country on an 

 indifferent horse. Indeed, in a long- experience 

 I have only once known her equal, a farmer's 

 daughter in Lincolnshire, who would ride at 

 the most awkward places on a wonderful old 

 three-leo^aed horse. 



Two other pieces of advice and I have done, 

 leaving the rest of the mysteries of lady's 

 riding to more competent hands. Never let a 

 pupil get so accustomed to one horse that she 

 cannot ride another. Let every steed in the 

 stable that is safe, carry the side-saddle in 

 turn. The other is, try to. teach girls to recog- 

 nise when a horse has had enough. Pressing 

 a tired horse is dangerous and cruel, and it 

 is often done through ignorance rather than 



o o 



from any other cause. When a horse falters, 

 changes his legs, hangs on the bit and chances 

 his fences, it is time to take to the road, or 

 perhaps to go home altogether. 



