THE RIDER. 



199 



really be taught, and to learn it there is, perhaps, no better plan 

 than to practise riding without stirrups. We are supposing, of 

 course, that the preliminary education that most English boys 

 receive either from their father or the family coachman has 

 not been neglected. In all athletic sports the child must be 

 father to the man. Without some experience at least in boy- 

 hood, no man is ever likely to attain much proficiency in the 



1 Never part company till the last moment. ' 



saddle, at any rate in the hunting saddle. But teaching, even 

 in this matter, is only of avail up to a certain point, and after 

 the young rider has mastered his alphabet, so to speak, he must 

 do the rest pretty much for himself. 



To some men a good seat comes, as it were, naturally ; to 

 others, on the contrary, it may be said to come with great 

 difficulty ; a graceful seat perhaps never. Short legs and round 

 thighs are certainly terrible impediments either to a firm or a 



