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members ; they have also been led by one or more competent and in- 

 dustrious instructors, and still they go on, year after year, riding- the 

 same figures "with more or less variations, but with the same absenee of 

 thorough horsemanship. 



"With pupils who have been made familiar with the principles of 

 seat and guidance and who have the command of their horses fore and 

 hindhand and can collect and balance the same, the very simplest of 

 evolutions can be executed so as to be truly impressive and they may 

 be most artistically adorned with the aid of lateral gaits. 



The essential point remains however, in the careful execution of 

 details and the uniformity and smoothness of the whole which give t 

 the performance interest, distinction and practical value. 



It seems to me that the constant repetition of figures of the sam e 

 kind or in the same manner, would become monotonous ; and it is not to 

 be wondered at when men and ■women of more than ordinary intelli- 

 gence make such ridiculous mistakes as to compare the bicycle to th 

 saddle horse and take up the exercise on the former instead of the latte r 

 saying that riding in the ring is "slow and pokey." 



There seems apparently nothing in horseback riding to employ 

 their mind or stimulate their interest because they handle the horse as 

 they handle the wheel, without thinking, and mechanically. I know of 

 nothing -which requires more constant exercise of thought and feeling, 

 more judgment and discretion than the management of a sensitive, well 

 trained horse. 



If only the members of Riding Clubs would patiently wait "with the 

 planning of exhibitions until they have mastered the rudiments, and 

 until they are sufficiently at home on horseback to give their attention 

 to the refined execution of such intricate affairs as quadrilles etc., and be 

 satisfied to show at the end of a season, not a great many things ■which 

 they can not do, but a few -well selected evolutions -which they master 

 to perfection. 



I have heard women and men raise their voices in horror -when 

 this or that man of the profession administered a well deserved blow of 

 the whip or sting "with the spur to a horse, because they failed to rec- 

 ognize the necessity for such severity ; but I have also seen the same 

 persons look on -with all evidence of interest and delight when young 

 men -who possessed of horsemanship only a firm seat and admirable 

 courage, ill-treated for an hour or more a few -worn out mustang ponies 

 jerking their mouths until they bled and spurring and beating -with 

 mallets the exhausted and steam enveloped nags while they revelled, in 

 -what some people may term a most enjoyable game of Polo. 



Games such as polo, football on horseback, Jeu de Barre and others, 

 -when ridden by skilled horsemen on horses -well trained and, as re- 

 quired in some instances, well booted and protected against injury, are 

 commendable enough; but when, as is often seen, they are played -with- 

 out any consideration for the horse they mar the refined aspect of a 

 good entertainment and suggest that, which to eradicate should be the 

 aim of every true horseman: brutality, coarsness and contemptible ig- 

 norance. 



