STARTING TO TROT. 237 



when the canter has been much adopted, it is not so readily effected. 

 The best plan is as follows : — Take hold of both the reins of the 

 snaffle, and bear firmly, but steadily, upon the mouth, lean slightly 

 forwards in the saddle, press the legs against the horse's sides, and 

 use the peculiar click of the tongue, which serves as an encour- 

 agement to the horse on all occasions. If properly trained, he 

 will now fall at once into the trot, but if he breaks into a canter 

 or gallop, he must be cheeked and restrained into a walk, or a 

 "jog-trot." Where the horse has been much used to canter, and 

 can go at that pace as slowly as he walks, there is often great diffi- 

 culty in making him trot, for no restraint, short of a total halt, 

 will prevent the canter. In such cases, laying hold of an ear will 

 often succeed, by making the animal drop his head, which move- 

 ment interferes with the canter, and generally leads to a trot. The 

 rising in the stirrups is generally practised in civil life, as being- 

 far less fatiguing to both horse and rider ; but in the military 

 schools the opposite style is inculcated, because among a troop of 

 horse it has a very bad effect if a number of men are bobbing up 

 and down, out of all time. If it were possible for all to rise to- 

 gether, perhaps the offence against military precision might be 

 pardoned ; but as horses will not all step together, so men cannot 

 all rise at the same moment, and the consequence is that they are 

 doomed to bump upon the sheep-skins in a very tiresome manner, 

 fatiguing alike to man and horse. This rising in the saddle of itself, 

 encourages horses which have been accustomed to it to trot in 

 preference to any other pace, and they understand the faintest in- 

 dication of it as a sign that this particular pace is to be commenced, 

 and trot accordingly. The civilian's mode of riding the trot is as 

 follows : — At the precise moment when the hind and fore legs are 

 making their effort to throw the horse forward in progression, the 

 body of the rider is thrown forcibly into the air, in some horses to 

 so great an extent as to make a young rider feel as if he never 

 should come clown again. After reaching the utmost height, how- 

 ever, the body falls, and reaches the saddle just in time to catch 

 the next effort, and so on as long as the trot lasts. In this way, the 

 horse absolutely carries no weight at all during half his time, and 

 the action and reaction are of such a nature that the trot is accel- 

 erated rather than retarded by the weight. No horse can fairly 

 trot above twelve miles or thirteen miles an hour without this rising, 

 though he may run or pace in the American style, so that it is not 

 only to save the rider's bones but also to ease the horse that this 

 practice has been introduced, and holds its ground in spite of the 

 want of military sanction. It is here as with the seat; utility is 

 sacrificed to appearances ; and whenever the long and weak seat of 

 the barrack-yard is supplanted by the firm seat of the civilian, I 

 shall expect to see the rising in the trot abandoned, but certainly 



