Conclusion. 125 



safely be defied to excel ; but we have very 

 few men and very few horses who understand 

 how to perform all the manoeuvres required 

 in ordinary riding. A horseman of average 

 nerve and tact will therefore, if he has taken 

 the trouble to make the best of himself and 

 his horse, find himself a match upon the 

 whole for men who are naturally much his 

 superiors ; just as the poking, painstaking 

 gunner, who has learnt to make sure of a deli- 

 berate shot, will usually bring home quite as 

 good a bag as his more dexterous but less 

 laborious rivals. 



Indeed, I might say more than this. The 

 peculiar pleasure and charm of scientific horse- 

 manship is, that the man who is beginning to 

 understand it never gets on horseback without 

 being conscious that he is improving either 

 himself or his horse. He will therefore 

 find a satisfaction in ordinary riding which 

 more ambitious but less scientific horsemen 

 are unable to comprehend ; because he per- 

 ceives, and they do not, how intimately 

 equestrian prowess is connected with mechani- 

 cal detail. Of the pleasure which a perfect 

 horseman feels in riding a perfect horse edu- 



