Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/208

196 196 HORSE [HORSEMANSHIP. saddle by about 3 inches. For maintaining his seat the horseman should depend upon his thighs and knees, and not upon the knee and calf only ; at times, of course, when on a restive horse, every available muscle may have to be brought into play, but the proper rule is as stated. Some people say they ride by balance only, and others that they ride by grip ; a proper seat should be an admixture of the two : a man riding by balance only is sure to be kicked off, while to grip with all one s might during an hour s ride is to undertake as much exertion as should last for a whole day. The position of the foot exercises some influence on the security of the seat ; at one time it was thought proper to turn the toes in and depress the heel, a posture that tended to diminish the grip of the thighs, but now the toe should be turned a little outward, and but very little upward. A good seat on a horse should not be strong merely ; it should be as graceful as the make and shape of horse and rider allow; but it should not be a stiff, stuck-up seat, which is never graceful, because it is not natural. Above the loins the body should be loose, so as readily to adapt itself to every motion of the horse ; but it should be upright, for if the rider lean forward in his saddle, a false step on the part of the horse is very apt to send him flying over its head. The position of the hands has a great deal to do with the seat, but the hands and the reins will be treated of presently. Beginners are often advised to learn to ride without stirrups ; if they do, they should have no saddle either, for riding in a saddle without stirrups is likely to produce rupture. The soundness of this advice, however, may be questioned, because, although riding without stirrups will undoubtedly tend to a firm seat, it will not be one of the same sort as when stirrups are used ; there must therefore be a process of learning and unlearning. The better plan is to practice both ways concurrently. Thus let the pupil be properly placed in a saddle with stirrups, and when he has ridden half an hour let a cloth be substituted for the saddle for about ten minutes, care being taken to observe the rules already laid down for the position of the legs ; in this way the proper seat will be strengthened, instead of a new one being formed. The proper adjustment of the reins is the next thing to be attended to, and as the management of these depends so much upon the seat being firm and independent of the bridle, the acquisition of a firm seat is certainly half way towards the acquirement of good hands. Assuming a single rein snaffle to be the bridle used, the second, third, and fourth fingers of the left hand should be inserted be tween the reins, which should be drawn up gently with the right hand until the rider feels that he has got an equal hold of his horse s mouth on both sides, and with just so much pressure that the slightest movement of the left or right rein would cause him to turn to the left or right respectively ; the fore and middle fingers of the right hand should then take hold of the right rein, which may be drawn out from the left hand so as to enable the hands to be held about 4 or 5 inches apart. The arms from the shoulder to the elbow should hang naturally close. to the sides, and the arms from elbow to wrist should be about parallel to the ground, the wrist being kept loose, so as to yield gently with every motion of the horse. The rider sitting in the position described, square to the front, with his shoulders well back, will be riding with fairly long reins, one of the secrets of good hands ; if he stoop forward and carry his bridle hand at some distance in front of his body, so as to take a short hold of his horse s head, seat and hands will both be bad. When a double reined bridle is used, the third finger of the left hand should be first inserted between the snaffle reins, and then the little, third, and second fingers should Walk i ns- be between the curb reins, the two outside reins will then be the curb, and the two inside ones the snaffle. In this manner of holding the reins the snaffle is not so likely to slip, while the curb can be easily slackened or drawn tighter. As military riders invariably use the curb only, the position of snaffle and curb as just explained is reversed in the cavalry service. When the horse is in motion, the hands should not be kept in one spot, so as to act like the peg on the pad of a harness horse to which the bearing rein is fastened, as the mouth would thereby become dead, and the horse would lean unpleasantly on the bit ; but the rider should give and take, so that while the pressure is not stronger at one moment than at another (unless there be a reason for it), yet, on the other hand, the hold should never be entirely relaxed. In order to encourage the horse to walk, the head must not be confined, but the light feeling on the horse s mouth must be kept up. Should the horse break into that uncom fortable pace, a jog trot, which, by the way, a well-broken hack should not do, never snatch at his mouth, but restrain him gently. To trot press the legs to the saddle, Trotti raise the bridle hand a little, and urge him if necessary with the voice. The rising to the trot should be performed easily ; the legs must not swing backwards and forwards, nor should the hands be jerked up and down, while the action of the rider should be in perfect time with the motion of the horse, or a passer by may renvirk that the horseman is riding faster than his horse. To start in the canter take up the curb rein a little and turn the horse s head slightly to the right, at the same time pressing the left leg behind the saddle, the horse will then lead with the off fore leg, which is generally preferred under ordinary circumstances ; but a well-broken hack should be taught to lead with either, and if he be cantered in a circle to the left he must lead with the near leg, as otherwise an ugly fall is likely to result from the leg being crossed. Galloping is a pace not gene rally indulged in by hack riders ; when it is, the hands should be kept low, the body thrown back, and an extra grip taken, as nearly all horses pull more or less when extended. Hitherto, only road or park riding has been considered, and, with wise people, hacking (except hacking to cover, or in the performance of a journey against time) means progressing at a strictly moderate pace for the sake of their horse, if for no other reason. Beginners of all ages are strongly advised to undergo proper instruction when commencing to learn to ride. The few directions already given may serve to remind a person what to avoid, but an hour s teaching is worth volumes of theory. The instructor should, however, be a practical and well-taught horseman himself; to be this it matters not whether he be a professional riding-master or not. When once the proper place for the legs and hands is pointed out, and the proper way of handling a horse and sitting in the walk, trot, and canter, when, in short, a person has been put in the way of becoming a fair road rider, he has made some progress towards being a hunting man. But if, on the other hand, first principles are disregarded, and a rider believes in the system of &quot; it doesn t matter how you ride so long as you only stick on,&quot; it will be a long while before he reaches his own standard, except with the comparatively few men who seem to have been intended by nature for horsemen. Few self-taught riders attain to anything like excellence ; they may ride quiet horses with fair success, and even in hunting, if possessed of plenty of courage, and mounted on a bold and not too tender-mouthed horse, they may keep a good place, but horsemen in the proper sense of the word they never will be. Ridin lessoi