32 Modern Riding and Horse Education 



in the lists was probably that not only did it enable 

 them to put more weight into the thrust, but they 

 were less liable to overbalance backwards after the 

 collision than if their knees had been bent and used 

 as the pivot. 



On the experience of the knights in armor 

 (Sidney) the "High School of Horsemanship" 

 was founded, and carried to fantastic perfection in 

 England and on the Continent during the period 

 when armor had been reduced to a breast-plate and 

 back-plate. Exercises much resembling those of the 

 more florid Haute Ecole school were, however, com- 

 mon amongst the Arab nations from the earliest 

 times, and may be witnessed to-day at w^hat are 

 known as Arab '' fantasias," and these were and are 

 carried out with the knee very much bent. It is pos- 

 sible that, during the long intercourse between the 

 Easterns and the knighthood of Europe at the time 

 of the Crusades, the Europeans may have adopted 

 some of the methods of their antagonists and sought 

 to rival their feats of horsemanship, though without 

 imitating their manner of sitting a horse. 



The Cavalier of a later date rode straight-legged 

 to war, and, according to contemporary writers, 



