FENCES, COUNTRY AND GATES. 303 



be always ready to save her this trouble, by pushing the 

 gate open with his breast. If the gate opens towards 

 her, the horse should be so trained, that when she has 

 undone the latch, and has begun to draw the gate 

 towards her, he will turn his hind quarters round 

 (make a pirouette renversde, as the French call it), 

 move his fore quarters a little to one side, so as to get 

 them clear of the gate, and pass through, the moment 

 he sees that his rider has opened the gate sufficiently 

 for him to perform that final manoeuvre. For instance, 

 if a mounted lady wants to get through the gate shown 

 in Fig. 126, she should pull back the latch with her 

 right hand (with or without a whip), and on drawing 

 the gate towards her, the horse should bring his hind 

 quarters round to the left ; move his fore legs a little to 

 the left ; and, if need be, rein back a step or two, so as 

 to be in the proper position to move forward, as soon 

 as he has plenty of room to do so. As a lady has not 

 a leg on each side of her mount, to enable her to turn 

 his hind quarters to whichever side she likes, she will 

 have far more difficulty than a man in teaching a horse 

 these very useful movements. At the same time, 

 when a horse is anxious to get through a closed gate- 

 way, as he will generally be when his head is turned 

 towards his stable, he will very quickly learn how to 

 ably assist his rider in this process. 



