RIDING IN CIRCLES. CHANGE OF LEADING FOOT. 83 



ready to wheel to the right ; but when he turns to the 

 left, whether carrying man or woman, he must change 

 and lead with the left foot ; and if he has not sense 

 enough to do so himself, you must teach him. 



This, really, is not an easy task for an amateur, espe- 

 cially for the amateur feminine, who has not the efficient 

 masculine resource of a pair of spurred heels. Even 

 with their aid a man is often so embarrassed to make 

 his horse comprehend that he gives up the attempt, and 

 contents himself with "slowing down" before turning, 

 his failure usually resulting from the insufficient pre- 

 vious training of the horse, coupled with his own ig- 

 norance of the successive short steps by which the lat- 

 ter may be led up to the performance of the wished-for 

 act. 



If you have been exact in the instruction hitherto 

 given — if your bitting has been so thorough that your 

 horse remains "light in hand" during all the manoeuvres 

 described in the foregoing lessons ; if he responds in- 

 stantly to the pressure of the rein upon the neck, and 

 to the touch of the heel and of the whip upon the flank, 

 so that you can move the forehand and the croup sep- 

 arately or at the same time in the same or in opposite 

 directions ; if he will rise from a walk into a canter 

 without trotting; and if, finally, your drilling in the 

 flexions of the neck permits you to bend his head to 

 right or left when at rest or in motion without affecting 

 the position of the forehand — then your horse is thor- 



