174 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 
recently been treated by more than one good writer 
and thorough horseman.! American horses are as a 
rule so intelligent and well disposed that they are 
easily taught to carry a man, though to educate any 
horse in the niceties of the art requires a master 
hand. The chief difficulty, especially if the animal 
be at all nervous, is to teach him to stand still while 
being mounted ; and this should be a long, cautious 
process. Mount him first in the stable, with the 
groom holding him by the head. After a time, let 
him stand free while you mount; and, later on, let 
the man hold him outside, near the stable and facing 
it, while you get on. And so by degrees accustom 
him to be mounted in the open. 
It is a great mistake to try experiments in this 
or in any other matter with a green horse. I re- 
member that many years ago, riding a young un- 
trained. horse alone at night, it occurred to me that, if 
I got off, it might be difficult to get on again. From 
this obvious reflection, it was but a step, in my own 
mind, to a well-grounded suspicion that I was afraid 
to try. And this being settled, —in that awful forum 
which we all carry about within us,—it appeared 
absolutely necessary that I should dismount then and 
there; and so off I jumped. Getting back was, as 
I anticipated, no easy task, but after much backing, 
shifting, and circling about the road on the part of 
the horse, I put foot in stirrup and was in the act of 
throwing my right leg over the saddle. Just then, 
1 The reader is referred to the Badminton volume on Riding 
and Polo; to “Patroclus and Penelope,” by Colonel T. A. Dodge; 
to “ Modern Horsemanship,” by E. L. Anderson; and to “ Horse- 
manship for Women,” by T. H. Mead. 
