2 Introduction 



rescued from books no longer generally available 

 much that is good, while his reasons for not 

 agreeing with some of the views expressed by 

 these writers are convincing; and, last but not 

 least, he has shown clearly in Sections XV and 

 XVI what the aim of the instructor in riding 

 should be, and the best means to that end. 



There is, I think, no portion of the book more 

 interesting than Section II, where he deals with 

 the evolution of the present-day seat on a horse, 

 and shows how the pendulum, after oscillating 

 between the extreme of the " Haute Ecole," or 

 straight-legged seat, and its opposite as practised 

 by Tod Sloan and his imitators, both of which are 

 unsuited to general purposes, has finally come to 

 rest at the hunting seat. We ought therefore to 

 hear no more of the military seat as such ; — there 

 never have been any good reasons for such a 

 distinction, and it would be particularly un- 

 desirable at present, when the military net is 

 spread to catch many that can never be trained 

 under purely military auspices. 



During the time I held the appointment of In- 

 spector of Royal Horse and Field Artillery, I had 



