182 THE HORSE. 



far as I know, in these days, have always retained 

 their proper seat ; and as I recollect, Lady Craven, 

 upon Pastime, never shrunk from either fence or 

 timber, reasonably passable ; and Lady Hester Stan- 

 hope may be now hunting upon her Arab, in those 

 howling wildernesses. All that I have to say further 

 on this point is, I have never been an advocate for 

 women riding to hounds : ladies had even better be 

 knotting ! 



I think I have already spoken of the kind of 

 horse for female service — not too lofty, a natural safe 

 goer, a steady canterer, a good walker, and easy slow 

 trotter, and one that neither starts nor shies ; on this 

 latter account, bred horses, or nearly so, are the best 

 adapted, granting they go safe. A few additional 

 words on the canter : it has caused me some surprise 

 that I should exhibit the smallest hesitation, when 

 several years past I was corrected on this point (in 

 the Sporting Magazine), for asserting the plain and 

 obvious fact of its beings natural to the horse to lead 

 with his off foreleg ; but I was in some degree tem- 

 porarily biased by the opposite opinion of an old 

 Newmarket man, who grounded his judgment on the 

 alleged custom of the rider pulling the left rein in 

 starting a galloper. Well, but surely in that case, 

 the horse's head being pulled to the left, must make 

 him throw forward his off leg;. This indeed militates 

 against my late rule, to put a horse into a canter by 

 pulling the right rein; but, I believe, such has always 

 been my practice on the road ; and such, it seems, is 

 the practice of the schools : I leave the matter to ex- 

 periment. 



