RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 



make them go quietly and pleasantly, with heads 

 in the right place, delighted to find control not 

 necessarily accompanied by pain. 



And this indeed is the whole object of our 

 numerous inventions. A light-mouthed horse 

 steered by a good rider, will cross a country 

 safely and satisfactorily in a Pelham bridle, with 

 a running martingale on the lower rein. It is 

 only necessary to give him his head at his fences, 

 that is to say, to let his mouth alone, the moment 

 he leaves the ground. That the man he carries 

 can hold a horse up, while landing, I believe to 

 be a fallacy ; that he gives him every chance in a 

 difficulty by sitting well back and not interfering 

 with his efforts to recover himself, I know to be 

 a fact. The rider cannot keep too quiet till the 

 last moment, when his own knee touches the 

 ground, then the sooner he parts company the 

 better, turning his face towards his horse if 

 possible, so as not to lose sight of the falling 

 mass, and, above all, holding the bridle in his 

 hand. 



The last precaution cannot be insisted on too 

 strongly. Not to mention the solecism of being 

 afoot in boots and breeches during a run, and the 

 cruel tax we inflict on some brother- sportsman, 

 who, being too good a fellow to leave us in the 

 lurch, rides his own horse furlongs out of his line 

 to go and catch ours, there is the further con- 



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