RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 



consideration so to manage the rein we handle as 

 never to give our horse the opportunity of dis- 

 coverino; our weakness and his own strenoth. 



How is this to be effected ? By letting his 

 head go, and allowing him to carry us where he 

 will ? Certainly not, or we should have no need 

 for the bridle at all. By pulling at him, then, 

 with main strength, and trying the muscular 

 power of our arms against that of his shoulders 

 and neck ? Comparing these relative forces 

 again, we are constrained to answer, Certainly 

 not ; the art of control is essentially founded on 

 compromise. In riding, as in diplomacy, we must 

 always be ready to give an inch that we may take 

 an ell. The first principle of horsemanship is to 

 make the animal believe we can rule its wildest 

 mood ; the next, to prevent, at any sacrifice, the 

 submission of this plausible theory to proof. You 

 get on a horse you have never seen before, 

 improperly bitted, we may fairly suppose, for 

 few men would think of wasting as many seconds 

 on their bridle as they devote minutes to their 

 boots and breeches. You infer, from his wild eye 

 and restless ear, that he is " a bit of a romp " ; and 

 you observe, with some concern, that surrounding 

 circumstances, a race, a review, a coursing- 

 meeting, or a sure find, it matters little which, 

 are likely to rouse all the tumultuous propensities 

 of his nature. Obviously it would be exceedingly 



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