28 A mono- Men and Horses 



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to derision without a fair trial having been given to his 

 methods. The fundamental error — which it took me many 

 years to find out, and which has been corrected by Fillis, 

 Barroil, and Count de Montigny— in the lateral flexions of 

 the head and neck, is that the principal of these 'suppling' 

 lessons is opposed to the fact that a horse, on receiving an 

 indication of the reins to turn to one side or the other, ought to 

 obey it with his hind quarters, as well as with his head, though 

 in an opposite direction. I may well ask, what good, if a 

 horse refuses a jump or bolts off to one side, say, to the left, 

 is it for him to bring his head round to the right, on that rein 

 being pulled, if he does not bring his hind quarters, at the 

 same time, round to the left, and then put himself straight 

 in the desired direction ? When a horse understands the indi- 

 cations of the hand and foot properly, he will turn on his 

 centre either by the ' feel ' of the rein, or by the pressure of 

 the drawn back foot. If the latter be strong enough to check 

 the rotation of the hind quarters, then, and then only, should 

 it be possible, by the former, to bring the head round without 

 influencing the position of the hind limbs. 



As soon as my fellow ' last joined ' cadets and myself were 

 sent to the riding-school, those of us who were Irish, had the 

 proud satisfaction of seeing that a far larger proportion of our 

 number could ride than that of the English. Nationality, 

 contrary to what we flattered ourselves, had no influence in 

 that fact, which was naturally caused by the greater concen- 

 tration of the well-to-do classes in towns in England, than in 

 Ireland. Almost all of us Irish lads had been brought up in the 

 country ; and had had far more facilities for learning to ride 

 than which fell to the lot of boys brought up in large cities. 



During the three years I spent as a cadet at Woolwich, I 

 generally got leave on Saturdays, and spent the afternoons on 

 the river, or at some running grounds, and my evenings at 

 some boxing saloon such as that of Nat Langham, Ben 

 Caunt, Bill Richardson, Bob Travers, Jack Hicks, or Jem 

 Mace. Fond as I am of ' the noble art,' I am glad the P. R. 



