Chapter Xii. 



SOME HINTS ON RIDING. 



Let us now consider that phase of horsemanship 

 which the average man takes most interest in, viz., 

 riding. 



The exercise is a most fascinating one, and there is 

 no art which better repays the trouble the novice is 

 bound to undergo in acquiring it. Some men become 

 expert much quicker than others, but there is no reason 

 why every man should not ride tolerably well, even 

 though he may not have commenced to learn until 

 fairly late in life. He may never know the joys of being 

 able to sit out a buck-jumper, or of feeling absolutely 

 safe no matter what sort of a mount he is put upon ; 

 iDut he can gain sufficient confidence and knowledge to 

 pass muster, and with the few opportunities which fall 

 to the lot of many, that is as much as can be expected. 



The day may come when the Government will awake 

 to the fact that some proper provision should be made 

 for teaching recruits, and it ought to be possible, at no 

 very great expense to the public, to provide here and 

 there in the large centres of population a school of 



