14 Horse and Man. 



that, to a man of his hardihood and agility, 

 such accidents were jokes. He was never 

 hurt, he never lost his horse, and he always 

 escaped the only danger for which he cared a 

 farthing that of being crushed or kicked on 

 the ground. c A fall, 1 he used to say, c is 

 nothing to me ; it is you fellows with the 

 sticky breeches that get nipped under your 

 horses/ But it is not every man who can 

 contemplate with so much philosophy a flight 

 over the head of a sixteen-hands hunter. 



If you wish to keep your seat in an unex- 

 pected shock, you have only one course to 

 pursue. You must acquire the knack of 

 firmly grasping your saddle with your legs. 

 Nothing else will do. A good horseman can 

 no doubt, when he knows what his horse is 

 going to do, place himself in an attitude which 

 will preserve him from receiving any shock 

 from the movement. But this attitude will 

 not always be the same. There is no one 

 attitude in which you can, without the aid of 

 force, be prepared for whatever irregular 

 movement your horse may choose to make. 

 You must therefore learn, in order to be secure 

 on horseback, either to employ the aid of force, 



