PKACTICAL HINTS. 351 



v 



the attempt is made without any knowledge of the art, if 

 it may be so called. The fundamental principle of the art 

 of learning to ride is to learn one thing at a time, and learn 

 to do that well, before attempting to do anything else. 

 The first thing to learn is how to sit upon a horse. One 

 should become perfectly at home in a saddle upon a con- 

 stantly moving horse, so that whether it walks, trots, can- 

 ters, shies, or jumps, he will either not lose, or will imme- 

 diately regain, his position. The proper seat is a firm one 

 in the saddle, with the legs below the knee free, and the 

 body above the waist supple and pliable. Whatever move- 

 ment the horse makes, whether to the right or left, or tip- 

 ping backward or forward, the hips must conform to it, 

 while the legs from the knees downward are free to obey 

 the rider's will, and the upper part of the body retains its 

 balance by accommodating itself instinctively to every 

 movement. If the upper part of the body be kept rigid, 

 its effect will be to remove the hips from their place in the 

 saddle. If, on the other hand, it be flexible, it will yield 

 and sway with every movement, and will be left free to 

 obey the motions of the saddle. 



In Tommy's act of throwing the boys, described in 

 another chapter, whenever a boy or young man would sit 

 in the saddle rigidly, with a firm grasp of the mane, no 

 matter how strong or supple he might be, the pony would 

 throw him with great ease, and with the force of a bullet, 

 from his back ; but when a young man came in who would 

 sit and balance himself on the pony's back as if with the 

 greatest carelessness, harmonizing the motions of his body 

 freely with those of the pony in the attempt to throw him, 



was not quite so full in detail on some points as was thought necessary, the author 

 has taken the liberty, not being himself a practical equestrian, to appropriate and 

 insert instructions from the best modern authorities, being especially indebted to a 

 series of papers written by Col. Geo, E. Warring, and published in the 

 Agriculturist, 



