132 HINTS TO HOKSEMEN ; OE, 



On the other hand, if a woman is so perfect an 

 equestrian that she can make a horse handy, docile, 

 and perfect in his performance as a lady's horse, 

 there can be no possible objection to, or anything un- 

 feminine in, her doing it. If, by her patience, gen- 

 tleness, and command of timber, she can, as, indeed, 

 women frequently do, render an impatient, nervous 

 animal amenable and quiet, she only employs the 

 attributes of her sex in doing so ; but subduing a 

 violent or nervous horse, is an act that shews little of 

 the gentleness and amiability of women in the at- 

 tempt, and is but the performance of a horse-breaker 

 or rough-rider, if performed. Such men are ex- 

 tremely useful in their way, so is an ostler ; but the 

 vocation of either is not that of even a gentleman, 

 and is the very antithesis of anything a lady should 

 attempt, even if she possessed the very unenviable 

 determination that would enable her to do so : the 

 great attraction of woman is being the direct oppo- 

 site to man. A man may, very properly, resolutely 

 lay his whip on the flanks of a sulky, vicious brute, 

 but to see a woman do this, could only be equalled 



