330 Among Men and Horses. 



than cross-saddle riding, about which there is but little new 

 to be said. Although from the artificial nature of a woman's 

 seat, improvements in side-saddles and consequently in femi- 

 nine equitation are constantly being made, no great ad- 

 vance has been wrought by men in riding during the last half 

 century. I do not think that if Allen M'Donogh, Frank 

 Butler, and Baucher came to earth again, they would have 

 much to learn in their respective styles of riding, from the 

 best professionals of the present day. 



I am aware that many persons hold in contempt all work 

 done in a riding-school. While fully admitting that the final 

 and crucial test of the training of a man, woman, or horse, 

 is his performance in the open, and, I would almost add, 

 over a country ; I must say that the first lessons can be given 

 far more effectively in a manege than outside, where the pupil, 

 whether human or equine, is far less under the instructor's 

 control and guidance than in a school. 



Although London riding-masters are no doubt well 

 acquainted with military riding, according to the English 

 red book, I have never yet met one of the ex-rough-rider 

 class (I am not referring to men like Captain Fitzgerald or 

 Mr Fred Allen) who understood anything about high school 

 riding, steeplechase or flat race riding, or horsebreaking, 

 which is an art that, in my opinion, every riding-master 

 ought to know. Nothing looks, or is, more incompetent 

 than the exhibition of ignorance, by such a teacher, of the 

 proper way to make a horse steady or obedient, there and 

 then, when the animal ' plays up ' with a pupil. But what 

 can you expect from a 35s.-a-week man? Baron de 

 Curnieu in his Lecons Hippiques says: — ' II nous faudrait tin 

 professeur a" equitation qui pent nous enseigner en mane temps 

 ranatomie comparce! That's all very well ; but one would 

 have to pay him accordingly. This puts me in mind of a 

 reply which a Mahammadan servant of mine made to me when 

 I found fault with him for having failed to exercise special 

 forethought respecting some business which I had given him 



