78 The Seat and Balance. 



fly. To avoid such disagreeable similies being 

 applied to her, the young lady, who aspires to be 

 a good rider, should, even from her first lesson in 

 the art, strive to obtain a proper deportment on 

 the saddle. She ought to be correct, without 

 seeming stiff or formal: and easy, without ap- 

 pearing slovenly. The position we have described, 

 subject to occasional variations, will be found, by 

 experience, to be the most natural and graceful 

 mode of sitting a horse : — it is easy to the rider 

 and her steed ; and enables the former to govern 

 the actions of the latter so effectually, in all ordi- 

 nary cases, as to produce that harmony of motion, 

 which is so much and so deservedly admired. 



The balance is conducive to the ease, elegance, 

 and security of the rider : — it consists in a fore- 

 knowledge of the direction which any given mo- 

 tion of the horse will impart to the body, and a 

 ready adaptation of the whole frame to the proper 

 position, before the animal has completed his 

 change of attitude or action — it is that disposition 

 of the person, in accordance with the movements 

 of the horse, which prevents it from an undue 

 inclination, forward or backward, to the right or 

 to the left. 



The balance is preserved when the rider sits 

 directly down upon the saddle, and so firmly that 



