40 



HOESEMANSHIP FOB WOMEN. 



near the right shoulder, and, with both snaffle-reins in 

 your right hand and the whip in your left, proceed 

 as before until the horse will walk one step at each tap 

 of the whip around the right fore-foot, which should 

 in its turn be kept so firmly in place as to bore a hole 

 in the ground. Repeat with the curb. 



This lesson, which will last, very likely, two or three 

 days, may appear to some of no practical utility, but it 

 is indispensable alike to your comfort when mounted, 

 to the safety of those who accompany or meet you, and 

 to the continued education of your horse. Who has 

 not seen an untrained animal force his rider to dis- 

 mount to lift some gate-latch which was really within 

 easy reach, or prancing about in a crowd, to the ter- 

 ror and vexation of his neighbors, or in momentary 

 danger of hooking his legs into the wheels of passing 

 vehicles ? 



ISTow, if you trample on any one, or upset a light 

 vehicle, though you risk, and perhaps break, your own 

 bones, yet you are liable for damages ; and this fact is 

 so well known that a suit will be promptly begun 

 against you. Besides, for your own sake you must 

 have it in your power to get your horse's haunches, 

 and with them your own person, out of danger from 

 careless or mischievous drivers^ — just as a cavalryman 

 has to save his horse from a slash or thrust. 



