THE SADDLE-HORSE 



so hedged about their explanations ( ?) with verbi- 

 age and mystery that the public have come to 

 regard it as either a stupendous task, or a mere 

 circus performance, than which nothing can be 

 farther from the truth. The " high school " 

 horse of circus and western production, which 

 does a few "jig" and march steps under the 

 powerful administration of curb-bit, spur, and 

 whip, is as much like an adept at la haute ecole, 

 as a grub is like a butterfly. We have never had 

 ten thoroughly educated high-school horses in 

 this country, nor six men who were capable either 

 of training them, or of imparting their knowledge 

 to others. 



In all forms of riding is this art most essential, 

 and he who has it will turn a polo pony quicker, 

 will hand a hunter over an " inthricate lep'* more 

 successfully, will get the last ounce out of a 

 " chaser," will skim the rails closer in a race, than 

 his more ignorant confrere, and the rudiments of 

 it should be imparted (as they easily are) to any 

 beast used under the saddle. The proper signals, 

 the proper aids in equestrianism are so absolutely 

 a matter of plain common-sense, and so generally 

 misunderstood or neglected, that it is a marvel 

 that the most polite of animals does not rid him- 



149 



