FIRST-HAND BITS OF STABLE LORE 



To wander at disconnected paces round and 

 round a dull brown parallelogram is not, per se, 

 wildly exciting, and the sight of awkward men 

 and " soggy " women flopping about on the long- 

 sufFering old riding-school slaves, jagging their 

 poor old mouths into ribbons, is enough to make 

 one take, in horror, to the bicycle. There are, 

 however, other grades, but the kindergarten, in 

 all schooling, and if one really sets about it, one 

 will be aghast to find the amount one does not 

 know, and to learn what a lenient critic was 

 " popper." As workshop to the artisan, as class- 

 room to the student, as atelier to the artist, so 

 should be the riding-school to the equestrian ; a 

 place for study, research, practice, and ultimate 

 skilled performance. Any man of fair physical 

 soundness may, if he will, progress far in this fas- 

 cinating art, finding daily new fields of pleasure 

 opening to him, and rewarded, not only by the ex- 

 ercise afforded and health obtained, but by the de- 

 light found in gaining mastery over an animal so 

 companionable and so lovable as the horse. 



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