296 LADIES ON HOnSEBACK. 



nature, whicli needs nought save gentleness 

 to make it amenable to even the rudest hand. 

 The man begins by pulHng ; the horse, on 

 the schoolboy ^' tit for tat " principle, pulls 

 against him in return; is sold before his 

 education (bad as it has been) is haK com- 

 pleted ; is ridden out to exercise by grooms 

 with heavy iron hands ; is handed over to the 

 riding-school and to carry young ladies when 

 every bit of spirit has been knocked out of 

 him, except the determined one of pulling — 

 pulls resolutely against the feeble hands 

 striving to control him ; is pulled and 

 strained at in return, and becomes in time 

 a confirmed and unmanageable brute. I wish 

 1 could persuade ladies not to pull their horses. 

 In a former number I endeavoured to tell 

 them the proper method of managing or 

 dealing with a pulling animal : neither to 

 drop their hands to him, nor to pull one 

 ounce against him. He will be certain after 

 a few strides to yield a bit, w^ien the hands — 

 hitherto firm, should immediately yield to 

 him, thus estabhshing a sort of give and take 

 principle, which will soon be perfectly under- 



