224 HORSEMANSHIP. 



aids that he becomes a good horseman. He must 

 be in perfect unison, as it were, with his horse's 

 actions and paces, to maintain a good and graceful 

 seat ; and, in proportion to the just balance of his 

 body, will he be able to have a steady hand, a point 

 of vast importance to the dragoon. The import- 

 ance of this balance, and keeping himself in a pro- 

 per equilibrium with his horse, is increased by the 

 fact of his not being allowed to rise to the horse's 

 trot, and therefore requiring a still finer use of the 

 bridle hand. " The man who rides with the aid of 

 the proper equilibrium,'' says Colonel Peters, " will, 

 in case of necessity, know when to apply the strength 

 he has retained with a steady, light hand, and 

 o^overn every motion according as he finds it neces- 

 sary for his purpose ; play light with his own 

 weight upon the saddle (by a gentle spring in the 

 instep of both feet on the stirrups,) with an easy 

 pressure of both thighs, knees, and calves of the 

 legs. When the horse jumps or plunges, then 

 these aids are also requisite to keep the seat ; but, 

 in an easy, steady pace forward^ it is most parti- 

 cularty to be pointed out to a young man, and can- 

 not be too often repeated, that, to become an easy, 

 elegant, or proper horseman, he must learn to ride 

 with comfort and pleasure to his horse as well as 

 to himself; he must learn to seek his balance from 

 his hip upwards, to keep the body with a slight 

 inclination backwards from the perpendicular, and 

 balance himself thus gradually on his horse in all 

 the difi'erent paces; which, of course, cannot be 

 expected all at once. A man that rides by the 



