1 1 o THR O UGH ST A BLE AND SADDLE-R OM. 



admitted to be generally the fact that a horse 

 which is a puller in saddle will pull less if ridden 

 by a lady than by a man. The reason always given 

 is that a lady's hands are so much more delicate 

 and lighter than those of a man. I grant that this 

 often is and may be so. A woman does not 

 perhaps pull at a horse as much as a man, and 

 consequently the horse, feeling that he gets no 

 fun out of it, gives up the game, and ceases to 

 pull at her. 



But I do not myself consider that this fully 

 explains the reason. There are men whose hands 

 are as delicate as anv woman's, and who are less 

 physically strong than many a woman, and who are 

 as delicate in their handling as any woman could 

 be. Yet with all this, horses will pull at them 

 and overpower them in a way which they would 

 not do with a lady, and there are many women who 

 can so manage horses, and whose hands can be and 

 are brutally severe on a horse's mouth. I have 

 thought over this subject often and deeply, and I 

 have formed the conclusion that the reason is to 

 be found very much in the fact that a woman's seat 

 on her side-saddle is considerably further bach than 

 a man's is, and that, having a greater length of 

 rein thereby, she has very considerably increased 

 power. It is, perhaps, the combination of this and 



