THE CAVALRY EIDER. 337 



nals of heel and hand, lightly or forcibly used, as the disposition 

 of the horse may require, make them all do the same thing. 

 But the case is far different Avith the jockey, steeplechase rider, 

 hunting man, or even with him who only rides on the road, if 

 he rides a variety of horses, for he will find that he will want, 

 not only good hands for a horse, but hands that are good for all 

 sorts of horses, 



A man may say that he merely wishes to ride for amuse- 

 ment, the show of the thing, air, or exercise, or the whole com- 

 bined, and that he will only ride horses broken to suit his hand 

 and seat, or, at all events, that go so as to suit them. Well and 

 good ; and, if circumstances and his pursuits enable him to do 

 this, he is quite right in doing it ; but he must not flatter him- 

 self that he is a horseman ; a neat and pretty rider he may be ; 

 and if so, and he only intends riding in the park, taking a 

 canter to make a morning call along a fine level road, or escort- 

 ing ladies at a watering-place, he is — on a well-broken easy- 

 going horse — horseman enough for such purposes ; but if he 

 means " to ride among horsemen, or in the field," he will find 

 that, in old coaching phrase, "he wants another hand" — mean- 

 ing that two — sucli as he owns — are not enough to be of much 

 use to him in such circumstances and situations. 



I have stated that most cavalry soldiers have more or less 

 good hands ; but I must unequivocally assert, and this without 

 reservation, that all good horsemen have. By such I do not 

 mean mere bold, hard-riding, straight-going men across country ; 

 many such have hands only fit to wield a sledge hammer, and 

 the consequence is tliey cannot ride a delicate-mouthed, gentle- 

 manly-going horse, and those they do ride soon get mouths as 

 dead as the anvil the sledge strikes upon ; such men are only 

 " bruising riders," but not good horsemen. What sort of a 

 jockey would a man be with such hands ? He could only ride a 

 boring brute like Eclipse ; or, if he merely possessed the hand 

 of the dragoon, he could only ride a horse whose mouth was 

 amenable to even the signal the bit gives. How would he 

 manage if, in the first race, he had to ride a resolute horse that 

 gets his head nearly down to his knees, with no more mouth 

 tlian a towed barge, about as easy to bring up, pulling a man's 

 arms from their sockets ? He must not be let loose, or he would 

 Vol. II.— 22 



