THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 129 



and calves, for exercising an easy control over the 

 mouth, and favoring the efforts of the horse by the 

 motions of the rider's body. According to all the 

 varieties of the long or military system of riding, the 

 horse requires as much teaching as the rider ; and 

 nearly every horse, of a vigorous and spirited breed, 

 is ruined by this course of teaching. " All equestrian 

 nations ride with the bended leg, or as it is commonly 

 termed, short, simply because experience has taught 

 them its advantages. The English jockeys, fox-hunt- 

 ers, and steeple-chasers, who get the utmost speed out 

 of their horse, who teach him to traverse, and assist 

 him over the most tremendous leaps, all ride short. 

 The South American Indians men who live and die, 

 as it were, on the backs of their horses the Moors of 

 the coast of Barbary and the Bedouin Arabs of the 

 Desert, all ride short. The extinct body of Mame- 

 lukes, who were Circassians, and the tribes of Cir- 

 cassians now inhabiting the Caucasus the most 

 dexterous men in the universe, in the use of their 

 arms, and the management of their horses, for all the 

 purposes of combat ; who stop them in their wildest 

 gallop, who wheel them round a hat, and who, not 

 riding more than an average of eleven stone, can lift 

 from the saddle the most brawny and burly riding-mas- 

 ter as if he were a child these men not only use 

 nothing but a snaffle, but actually double up the leg 

 and thigh almost in the following manner : < One 

 7* 



