20 EIDING AKD TEAIKING SADDLE-HORSES. 



home while the horse is quiet, let him he led at a ■walk. 

 Increasing the speed after a time, and finally let him be 

 galloped with a long bridle rein, nntil, under all his 

 motions, you feel comfortable and easy, and hare learned 

 to depend only on your thighs and the flexibility of your 

 body to maintain your position. Boys will learn this in 

 less time than men, and some boys in less time than 

 others ; but all must make up their minds to learn it, 

 however long it takes, before they can become thor- 

 oughly good horsemen and can really enjoy riding at all 

 paces. 



The practice prescribed having been persevered in until 

 the pupil has made himself perfectly at home in the 

 saddle, and so suppled his loins that the motion given to 

 the upper part of the body has no effect on the seat, he 

 may now resume the stirrups and learn their use. They 

 are very important as a matter of convenience and com- 

 fort, but they should aid a rider to easily regain his seat 

 when he has lost it, rather than to keep it. It is very 

 fatiguing to ride, even at a walk, with the legs dangling 

 at the horse's sides, and especially so when they are kept 

 in the position already indicated — the only position that 

 can give a secure seat. In walking, a gentle support of 

 the stirrups will help keep the body from swaying from 

 side to side as the horse moves. In trotting, where stir- 

 rups are almost indispensable, they enable the horseman 

 to either "rise to the trot," or to so distribute the shock 

 in " riding hard," that it shall be no shock at all, but an 

 easy, quick movement, distributed between the feet, the 

 seat, and the thighs. 



The length of the stirrups should be carefully attended 



