Page:Xenophon by Alexander Grant.djvu/171

Rh ways the ancients had of mounting were either to vault on horseback, or to use as a step a transverse bar affixed to the shaft of the spear, or to have "a leg up," which the Persians managed in a dignified manner, by using the shoulder of a slave. Xenophon gives several directions for the process of mounting, and recommends the reader to practise mounting from the right side as well as the left, as being an accomplishment often useful in war.

All his maxims for the treatment of the horse are of the most judicious description. He gives it as the one golden rule in these matters, "Never approach a horse in a fit of anger; for anger is thoughtless, and will be sure to lead you to do what you will afterwards repent." A horse is never to be struck for shying, as that will only make him associate the pain he feels with the object which before caused him alarm. The rider should touch the object of which the horse was afraid, and then gently lead him up to it, so as to show that it is nothing terrible. Xenophon's system, in short, proceeds on the same humane principles as that of Professor Rarey. He even thinks that a horse may be taught the most showy paces, such as caracolling and rearing, by the use of the bit and by signs and encouragements, without striking him on the legs at all. "It is on horses thus trained that gods and heroes are painted riding, and those who are able to manage them skilfully may truly be said

So beautiful and grand a sight is a horse that bears