KIDING, DRIYIXG, AND ROAD MANAGEMENT. 



It cannot be expected that a novice can be instructed bj any- 

 written rules, how to become a practical rider and driver, any 

 more than he can how to sail a boat, or to kill double shots, to 

 a certainty, on the wing. 



The mere skill in managing and conti'olling the animals, 

 under the saddle, or before a vehicle of any kind, can be ac- 

 quired only by beginning 3'Oung, under good instructors, and 

 persevering attentively until habit and experience have become 

 second nature. 



Even thus, there are some men so constituted, that, whether 

 from constitutional nervousness and timidity, want of temper, 

 tact, judgment, or of the peculiar talent which enables others 

 at once to acquire command over the fears and affections of 

 animals, they can never, either in the saddle or on the driving 

 box, become more than the most moderate performers, awk- 

 ward in manner and appearance, alike, ungraceful, and, to a 

 great extent, inapt to the task they have undertaken. 



Others, again, have a faculty, or gain a power from the 

 first, so easily that it seems like instinct, which they never lose, 

 even by desuetude or neglect, and which, one might almost 

 say, constitutes them at once horsemen, so soon as they come 

 in contact with a horse. 



In some sort, genius of a particular kind is necessary to 

 the attainment of great excellence in this, as in many other 

 arts ; and a man, to be a pre-eminent rider, or a first-rate whip, 

 as to be a poet, a musician, a crack-shot, or a general, must be 

 born such, first, and, then be led on step by step, ab ovo. 



