90 Cross Country with Horse and Hound 



In answer to my advice to ride more by balance, he re- 

 plied that his riding-school master had always told him 

 what he most lacked was grip. His experience was only 

 that of thousands who attempt to keep upright by grip, 

 coming home after a ride to lie awake half the night with 

 cramps and pains in their legs, the result of distinct and 

 laboured effort throughout the ride. 



Compare riding, for a moment, with fencing. When one 

 accomplished swordsman meets another, this is what happens: 

 his mind directs him to place himself on guard before his 

 opponent; but from the instant foil-play begins, mind and 

 reason are a blank. The law of self-preservation takes en- 

 tire control of the body, directing every action. The man 

 who tries to fence or control his foil by dictates of mind is 

 altogether too slow in self-defence. Reason is useful and 

 necessary to teach position and proper form, but useless 

 in a bout for honours. No man can become an accom- 

 plished swordsman or boxer who does not give himself up 

 to this law in self-defence. For the same reason, no one, I 

 believe, can ever become a thoroughly accomplished rider 

 who does not abandon all attempt to stick on by conscious 

 and deliberate grip. 



The argument for the security of the seat by grip is 

 weakened by the fact that thousands of men all over the 

 United States are daily riding by balance. The self-taught 

 ranchmen and cow-boys on the Western plains, the Ameri- 

 can Indians, and hundreds of the best amateur riders all 

 over the country ride by balance. 



I remember once complimenting a most finished rider 

 on his seat. " Why, certainly I ride by balance," he re- 



