Horse-back riding, from a medical point of view

IC-NRLF

UHANT.

THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA

PRESENTED BY

PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND
MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID

HORSE-BACK RIDING,

FROM A

MEDICAL POINT OF VIEW.

THE S_A*M::E

RESEARCHES

ON THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE

Nervous Ganglionic System,

AND THEIR

APPLICATION TO PATHOLOGY.

ON THE CAUSE, PREVENTION, AND CURE

OF

TUBERCULOUS PHTHISIS,

BEING THE ESSAY TO WHICH THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
AWARDED THE "HIRAM CORLISS " PRIZE.

ON CONSUMPTION,

TO WHICH ESSAY WAS AWARDED THE GOLD MEDAL OF THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OF
THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK.

HYGIENE OF THE VOICE

ITS PHYSIOLOGY AND ANATOMY.

SEA-BATHING:

ITS USE AND ABUSE.

HORSE-BACK RIDING,

FROM A

MEDICAL POINT OF VIEW.

BY

GHISLANI DURANT, M.D., PH.D.,

MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION; FELLOW OF THE NEW YORK

ACADEMY OF MEDICINE; MEMBER OF THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF

THE COUNTY OF NEW YORK, ETC., ETC

NEW YORK:

CASSELL, FETTER & GALPIN,
No. 596 BROADWAY.

1878.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878, by

GHISLANI DURANT, M.D.,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.

/ 0 1

L

A

M. LE DOCTEUR R. CHASSAIGNE,

reconnafssance,

GHISLANI DURANT.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

CHAP. I. — OF MOVEMENTS IN THE FUNCTIONS OF LIFE, . 7

CHAP. II.— MEDICAL GYMNASTICS, 16

CHAP. III. — MECHANISM OF HORSE-BACK RIDING, .... 22

CHAP. IV. — PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF HORSE-BACK RIDING, 33

CHAP. V. — THERAPEUTIC EFFECTS OF HORSE-BACK RIDING, 65

CHAP. VI. — HYGIENIC EFFECTS OF HORSE-BACK RIDING, . 102

ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF HORSE RACES, 113

HORSE-BACK RIDING.

i.

OF MOVEMENT IN THE FUNCTIONS OF LIFE.

' ' Bodily labor is of two kinds, either that which a man submits to for
his livelihood, or that which he undergoes for his pleasure. The
latter of them generally changes the name of labor for that of exer-
cise, but differs only from ordinary labor as it rises from another
motive.

" I might here mention the effects which this has

upon all the faculties of the mind, by keeping the understanding
clear, the imagination untroubled, and refining those spirits that are
necessary for the proper exertion of our intellectual faculties, during
the present laws of union between soul and body.

" To conclude, as I am a compound of soul and body,

I consider myself as obliged to a double scheme of duties ; and
think I have not fulfilled the business of the day when I do not thus
employ the one in labor and exercise, as well as the other in study
and contemplation. ADDISON."

IT is only necessary to observe man in the nature and
diversity of his acts, and in. his peculiar constitution,
to see that he is a complex being, mind and matter,
during the entire length of his active existence.

We find the proof of this in all the acts of his life,
and recognize its necessity in all the distinctive

8 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

phenomena of his species ; and from the reciprocal
and harmonious reaction of mind and matter re-
sults his perfect development.

For a long time physiologists have considered the
various phenomena, which are the manifestations of
organic life, to be produced by some hidden forces.
These forces have received various names, the most
prominent among them being bone (Van Helmont),
soul (Stahl), and vital principles (Bartles). A very
slight consideration of the meaning to be attached to
the terms vital force and vital principle will convince
us that they both mean one and the same thing, and
that under these two names modern physiologists
designate that force residing in the individual upon
which depend the phenomena or attributes by
means of which life manifests itself. This is the
force which, when acting upon matter, vivifying it, as
we may say, causes it to take a particular form, which
presides over the function of nutrition, which per-
petuates the various races, which forces organized
matter to take on a predetermined specific form.

The principle of life is not a question for us now to
discuss. The arguments on that point, though always
in the mouths of men, are yet very far from being
settled. Two conflicting opinions stand confronting
each other. The first, held by Zenon, Epicureus,
Cabanis, Broussais, etc., represents matter active in
and of itself, sole cause of all the phenomena of
nature ; and to these philosophers life is but an effect

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 9

of that activity. In the other, on the contrary, life
is a principle of the activity of matter, a force which
necessitates certain acts, indeed, a cause of the first
phenomena of the living being, outside of all qualities
of structure.

This latter view of the question is advocated by
Plato, Hippocrates, and Galen, as well as by Stahl,
Boerrhave and Hoffman, that great triumvirate of the
eighteenth century, to whom the most immediate ex-
pression of life was motion.

We find the first principle of the system of the lat-
ter to be that the human body, as well as all other
bodies in nature, possesses material forces by means
of which it moves. A body, simply because it is a
body, has forces of cohesion and of resistance which
are given it by the Creator.

That imponderable material agent, ether, the ac-
tive motor force, animates all the properties of bodies,
and presides over all the physical phenomena in the
unity of the creation. Thus the living mechanism
performs the functions which are peculiar to it, by
virtue of the properties assigned to animal matter ;
and the activity of those properties resides essentially
in the power of a special ether secreted by the brain,
and carried to all the parts of the organism by a very
complicated organic apparatus.

That ether is the primary and efficient cause of all
vital movements. It it is which animates all the
organs, and each of them ceases to perform its func-

10 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

tions from the moment it no longer receives the vivi-
fying and animating ether.

The nervous fluid is to Hoffman, then, nothing else
but the sensitive soul presiding over the organism and
constituting the mere life of man.

Essentially material, that sensitive soul is entirely
different from the spiritual soul which is momentarily
united to the living body. The seat of the conscience
and source of reasoning, that spiritual soul elevates
the man from a mere animal to an intellectual, re-
sponsible being.

That idea of a sensitive and perishable soul, dis-
tinct from the thinking and immortal soul, is but a
tradition of antiquity. It goes back to Cicero, Plato,
Pythagorus ; to the Persian, Indian, and Chinese
philosophy. It reaches the origin of man.

Frederick Hoffman, then, makes life dependent on
the organization, and not at all on the spiritual prin-
ciple of which it is the home. Life, then, is the circu-
lating movement of the blood, and the humors pro-
duced and kept up by the impulse of the heart and
arteries, by the contractions of the dura mater, and
the vibrations of the meninges which, sending the
ether or nervous fluid to all parts of the body, pene-
trate them with regular movements. Life is the pro-
duct of the organization set in motion by the laws
assigned to organized matter.

Embryonic, man is but an organized and focun-
dated molecule living his life by the life of his

HORSEBACK RIDING. II

mother, who carries him in her womb. Thus life,
through woman, goes back to the Creator, and all
the generations of men are joined in the unity of a
same origin, and of a single and identical species.
The child is born, but its life is still latent. An at-
mospheric pressure necessitates the action of the
respiratory nerves ; the child breathes, and the whole
living mechanism moves, is warmed up. The child
having once breathed, it lives of its own life and
grows incessantly in divers and varied ways ; for the
living mechanism finds itself incessantly in relation
with the elements of the exterior world, gravity,
light, heat, electricity ; with the geographical and
geological influences ; with all things of which the
reciprocal influences are increasing, and against which
he reacts without cessation.

Thus man continues on his own account the life
which he has begun through his mother ; he lives
now his own individual life. From the air he draws
incessantly the gas which purifies his blood. It is
first in the blood elaborated by his mother, and after-
wards in that which he himself elaborates with the
material of alimentation that he draws the elements
of the nutrition of the nervous, the muscular, and of
the vascular system — of the whole entire mechanism ;
and that, by divers and varied non-interrupted series
of actions and reactions, co-operates in the unity of
his being. And we may well say with Daly, the in-
dividual life upon earth will end as it has begun. It

12 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

has begun by an expiration of the celestial world into
the terrestrial ; as mysteriously it ends ! The in-
dividual life ascends towards its Creator ; the ele-
ments, disassociated, dissolve and pass into new com-
binations. Nothing dies.

Developing the body, and when developed, put-
ting to their proper use the forces that exist, alone
can maintain in a salutary state of activity the trans-
formation and renewal of the organic matter, which
is the fundamental condition of life. A break in that
transformation and renewal may bring on any of the
thousand ills that flesh is heir to.

Full of that truth, physicians have in all ages urged
that well-advised corporeal movements were to be
considered as an indispensable condition of the pres-
ervation, and even, under some circumstances, of
the re-establishment of health.

In order that man may maintain himself in a normal
state, that is to say in a state of health, and develop
himself in conformity with the destination of his na-
ture, a bodily and spiritual activity corresponding to
the measure of his individual forces is absolutely
necessary. But the entire activity of the body is
much more indispensable than that of the mind, as
we shall presently see.

The ensemble of the organic life rests upon an un-
ceasing renewal of matter ; upon an elimination of
that which has grown old, which the vital act has ren-
dered unfit to be made use of ; and upon the assim-

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 13

ilation of a new quantity of organic matter under a
suitable form, the elements of which the body draws
from the blood and the air breathed.

'The flame of life," says Schraeber, "from the
first pulsation to the last is continually lighted at the
stove of the transformation of matter." Hence, the
more rapid and complete the renewal of the substance
of the body, that transformation of matter grown old,
in other more fresh, the more life will gain in fresh-
ness, in strength, and in duration.

Thus, in order that our body be well, it is neces-
sary that the molecules constituting it be renewed,
be constantly made young again. Any departure
from this order of phenomena, if not rapidly com-
pensated, produces suffering, disease, death.

But the stimulation of the renewal of matter and
the refreshing of life is determined generally by the
activity of the organs of the body, as long as there is a
harmonious relation kept up between exercise and
the time of repose.

The movements which are accomplished by the
animal economy, says Beclard, are numerous and
varied. The most striking and extended are the
movements of totality, that is to say, the movements
of locomotion, by virtue of which man and the ani-
mals voluntarily change their relations with other
bodies and move in the midst of surrounding objects.
Of these movements are walking, running, swim-
ming, etc. Another order we might call partial

14 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

movements, or movements in situ, and which we ob-
serve in man with a degree of frequency and com-
plexity, varied almost ad infinitum, consist in the
change of relation of the divers segments which com-
pose the skeleton : changes of situation, by virtue of
which the members play the most important part,
although the trunk itself generally participates in the
motion.

But even when man or the animals do not execute
the extended movements of which we have spoken,
they are still far from being immobile. The thoracic
cage is each instant raised and lowered, moved by the
filling of the lungs, and by their return to their first
dimensions, the entrance and exit of the air necessary
to respiration. The digestive tube and the stomach
work upon the aliments contained in their cavity.
At certain moments, which correspond with the feel-
ing of hunger and thirst, food is brought to the
mouth and taken by it ; the tongue, the teeth,
jaws and pharynx set to work each in their wray,
to divide the food, to masticate and swallow it,
etc. . . . And when digestion is accomplished,
the residue is expulsed by the active forces of defeca-
tion.

At every movement the heart contracts on the
blood which is brought to it, and sends it to the
arteries. The arteries, capillaries, and veins work
upon that liquid by a retrograde movement due to
the elasticity of their walls, and also, in certain con-

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 15

ditions, by virtue of the contractile power inherent in
their coverings.

The divers functions of the organs of the senses,
the production of the sound of the voice, that of
speech, necessitate also varied, and more or less com-
plicated movements, not only in the position of the
organ of the sense taken as a whole, but also in re-
ciprocal relations of its divers constituting parts.

It may be said in a general way, that all the func-
tions of the economy are accompanied by move-
ments.

II.

MEDICAL GYMNASTICS.

" MESSIEURS :

" La gymnastique medicale, consideree par les anciens comme un
des moyens les plus puissants d'education et d'hygiene publiques,
devait etre abandonnec a une epoque ou la partie materielle de 1'etre
semblait meprisable ct sans valeur et etait souvent traitee en
ennemie.

*' On revient aujourd'hui a des idees plus justes, et Ton commence
a comprendre 1'importance de la forme faite a Timage de Dieu ct
jugee digne de recevoir une ame immortelle.

" Ce n'est certainement pas sans une profonde sagesse quele corps
et 1'esprit ont etc associes par le Createur, et la bcaute plastique,
quoique inferieure a la beaute morale, n'en meritc pas moins Tat-
tention des medecins et des philosophes."

, Soc. de Med. Strasbourg, Juin, 1854.)

IT has always been acknowledged that bodily exer-
cise is the surest and most efficacious means of pre-
serving health or re-establishing it where altered or
upset. It is a recognized fact that individuals who
pass their lives in idleness, and without taking any
kind of exercise, never enjoy good health ; that they
are subject to an infinity of maladies, their fibres are
weak and relaxed, the organs become benumbed and
lazy. They begin by losing appetite, because the
digestive faculties work badly ; their bodies grow
fat, and, overloaded with an incommodious cmbon-

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 17

point, soon become incapacitated for most occupa-
tions.

Exercise, on the contrary, increases the strength ;
the blood circulates more freely, and with more uni-
formity ; the fibres become stronger and more elas-
tic ; all the humors receive a more perfect elabora-
tion; the nervous fluid separates from the brain in
greater quantity, to spread itself through the nerves,
and all the functions of the body are performed and
movements made with more energy and ease.

From a medical point of view, movements take
place in the muscles, the bones, the tendons, and in
all the soft parts of the body. They are divided into
three classes : Active, passive, and mixed.

Active movement or exercise is the one executed
voluntarily by the individual alone. In this the body
is the sole agent of the movement, as in walking,
running, jumping, dancing. All the movements of
the thoracic and abdominal members are exercises
which result exclusively from muscular contractions.

In passive exercise the person is moved, not offer-
ing the slightest resistance ; or again it may consist
in the agitation of the body by means of machines
upon which the individual is placed, or which trans-
port him from one place to another, such as carriage-
driving, etc.

Most exercises, however, partake at the same time
of both of the above-mentioned kinds, and require
that the individual, although supported and sub-

1 8 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

jected to a motion communicated by a foreign body,
act, however, either to preserve certain attitudes or to
communicate motion to the machine or instrument
upon which he may be placed ; in a word, that cer-
tain parts of himself participate in the motion.

To this class of exercises belongs Jwrse-back riding,
for we have here two orders of movements, those
that the horse executes and those made by the rider
to keep himself in equilibrium on a movable base,
as well as to govern his animal. In other words, the
communicating force, the horse, and the active force,
the rider.

But to appreciate fully the advantages of horse-
back riding, it is necessary to study first the local as
well as the general effects produced by active and
passive exercises.

I. Effects of active exercises. — In order to form an
idea of the influence of active exercises on the econ-
omy, it is sufficient to examine the condition of the
members that are much exercised.

If you set a part to work for a while, you see it
first swell from the afflux of a larger quantity of
blood ; the heat becomes greater there, and if you
repeat habitually the same movements, you see de-
velop in the part which executes them a greater per-
fection of action, an increase of nutrition and of
energy.

It is not only the organs of active movements that
experience such effects. The nutritive functions be-

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 19

come better and more active under their influence,
and when the muscles are much exercised, they gen-
erally communicate an increased activity to the
viscera. Following work and fatigue, the need of
food becomes more frequent and more imperious ;
the stomach, more active, digests greater quantities.

A moderate exercise after meals renders digestion
easier and consequently more perfect, so much so
that persons who have contracted the habit experi-
ence the imperious need of it, and digest badly when
they cannot satisfy it.

Active exercises always cause acceleration of the
circulation and respiration. Many movements modify
in a very powerful manner this last function ; some
by simply accelerating it, others by exacting sus-
tained and frequent dilatations of the thorax indis-
pensable to the execution of sustained efforts.

Calorification, which is generally only a result of
the nutritive functions, is greatly increased by the
force, duration, and specially the frequency of active
exercises. We know that perspiration is always more
or less increased by those exercises. The other secre-
tions or exhalations are not more abundant, some
even seem diminished.

Moderate active exercise renders nutrition more
perfect in all the organs of the economy ; there is not
one of them that does not show its influence, since
all participate in the molecular agitations which the
movement of the members cause in the whole body.

20 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

That increase of nutrition is, besides, a consequence
of the greater activity of the principal visceral func-
tions.

But it is specially in the muscular system that is
manifested in the most remarkable manner that
activity of nutrition, for the muscles acquire more
volume, more density, more power, and in turn react
upon the internal organs.

Active exercise practised in early life appears also
to increase the nutrition of the osseous system. The
muscular contractions develop the whole frame and
increase the size of the eminences where the muscles
are attached. To the muscular development is
always joined that of the circulatory system, and
from the well-being of the two apparatuses results a
robust constitution, and one ordinarily exempt from
infirmities.

To resume, then, active exercises exert first their
influence on the muscles which execute the move-
ments, and they increase afterwards the action and
the energy of the assimilating organs, because the
muscles requiring from these a greater amount of
material proper to their development, double neces-
sarily their work, and because they communicate also
to the organs of nutrition agitations favorable to the
execution of their functions and to the nutrition of
tissue.

2. Effects of passive exercises. — These exercises take
place without contraction of the muscles ; the body,

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 21

then, is only submitted to agitations and concussions
more or less great and frequent, which penetrate it,
so to speak, and act upon all its parts. These mo-
tions stimulate the tissues, increase the organic ac-
tivity, and render the execution of nutritive functions
more easy. They do not excite, as is the case in
great active exercises, disturbance in the digestion,
circulation, or respiration ; they do not increase ani-
mal heat and perspiration ; they do not cause either
loss or fatigue ; they are therefore suited to conva-
lescents, and to individuals of weak constitution.

3. Effects of mixed exercises. — Mixed exercises, and
specially horse-back riding, unite in themselves the ad-
vantages of active movements, and those of commu-
nicated or passive movements. They have on the
muscles and on the viscera an action more powerful
than the last, and that action has not, like the great
muscular contractions, the inconvenience of bringing
on great fatigue and an abundant loss of nutritive
material ; thus the mixed exercises are almost suit-
able to all ages, to most temperaments, and, above
all, to all individuals who by constitution are not
strong enough to take great active exercises, yet have,
however, need of more movement than simple gesta-
tion.

Ill

MECHANISM OF HORSE-BACK RIDING.

" I concede that walking is an immeasurably fine invention, of
which old age ought constantly avail itself. But in some respects
saddle leather is even preferable to sole leather.

" You may be sure that Bacon and Sydenham did not recommend
it for nothing. One's hepar — or, in vulgar language, liver — a ponder-
ous organ, weighing some three or four pounds, goes up and down
like the dasher of a churn in the midst of other vital arrangements,
at every step of a trotting horse. The brains also are shaken up
like coppers in a money-box

' ' In all forms of active exercises", there are three powers simulta-
neously in action — the will, the muscles, and the intellect. In walk-
ing, the will and muscles are so accustomed to work together, and
perform their duties with so little expenditure of force, that the
intellect is left comparatively free. But in riding I have the addi-
tional pleasure of governing another will, and my muscles extend
to tips of the animal's ears and to fore -hoofs, instead of stopping at
feet and hands.

" Now in this extension of my volition and my physical frame into
another animal, my tyrannical instincts and my desire for heroic
strength are at once gratified. When the horse ceases to have a will
of his own and his muscles require no special attention on your part,
then you may live on horse-back as Wesley did, and write sermons
or take naps, as you like. The Autocrat, 1858."

IN the act of horse-back riding, man follows the
motions of the movable basis which supports him.
Each time the animal upon which he sits alters its
position, at the instant when its feet, carried forward,
meet the soil and are thus forced to support the

HORSE BACK RIDING. 23

weight of the body, a shock takes place — that is to
say, that all the movements of impulse given to the
body of the animal cause a displacement which is
communicated to the rider.

These concussions are repeated at intervals more
or less frequent, according to the rapidity of the
movement of the animal, and they are more or less
strong according to the gait of the latter, the nature
of the soil, the quality of the horse, and the skill of
the one who rides.

To proceed in order, we must next, aided by the
excellent pages of Dr. Chassaigne (which he kindly
placed at our service), examine the modifications
which the different gaits of the animal exert on the
movements communicated to the horseman.

All the movements of the horse which have pro-
gression for their object — and these are they which
we are specially to consider — may be classed in three
groups and are called natural gaits. They are the
walk, the trot, and the gallop. All others, such as
single-foot, Spanish step, ambling, cantering, hunt-
ing and racing gallops are the results of education
or bad habits.

Walking is a natural gait, since the horse always
rests on the ground. In it we distinguish four differ-
ent measures or beats. In the first, we have the
horse carried forward by raising and advancing the
right fore-foot ; this is followed, at a very short in-
terval, by the corresponding movement of the left

24 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

hind-foot, which constitutes the second '; the third is
seen in the raising and advancing of the left fore-
foot, and the fourth in the same action in the right
hind-foot ; but at the moment when the right hind-
foot is about to touch the ground, the right fore-foot
leaves it, and the hind-foot is placed in its track, or,
in the case of some animals, a little in advance.

During these movements, there is a moment when
two of the feet are raised from the ground, and the
horse rests entirely on the other two, and as we have
already shown that the second movement follows
very closely upon the first, and that the left hind-foot
is on the ground at the same moment, or very nearly
so, as the right fore-foot, it follows that in this gait
the horse is supported, now on two feet laterally,
now on two feet diagonally.

Hence, in this gait the centre of gravity being but
little or not at all changed, it is the easiest, the rider
receiving only moderate concussions, repeated at dis-
tinct intervals, regular, easy to count. This is the
only gait to ride immediately after meals, and should
be restricted in certain diseases.

The trot is a diagonal and jumping gait. If we
examine the movement of a horse which has just
started, there is a point of time when, by the force
gained, the horse is for a moment suspended in the
air, all four of his feet having quitted the ground.
He then falls on his right fore-foot at the same time
that the left hind-foot touches the ground, in order

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 25

to acquire a fresh impulse, which throws the weight
of the body on the left fore-foot and continues the
movement by means of the right hind-foot. There
are, therefore, but two measures or beats in the trot.

The rider receives at each movement rude shak-
ings, which cause him often to rise in the saddle, and
the violence of these varies" singularly according to
the nature of the ground, the habit one has of this
mode ot riding, and specially of the quality of the
horse himself.

The gallop is a succession of leaps. The horse first
raises the fore-part of his body, but his fore-feet do
not both leave the ground at the same time. We
will suppose the horse starts with the right leg, the
left follows immediately, and he rests entirely on the
hind-legs, which, bent like a bow, make a sudden
spring. The body is thrown forward, and all four of
the feet are off of the ground, but the shock falls on
the two fore-feet, lessened by the manner in which
they are placed upon the ground ; the left one, which
quitted the ground last, being replaced first, the
right following immediately, but a little in advance
to support the left, and to divide the shock. During
this time the two hind-feet are brought forward just
under the centre of gravity and near the fore-feet,
with the right foot a little in advance of the left ;
there is, therefore, a moment when the four feet touch
the ground. However, we observed that the hind-
feet do not both quit the ground at the same mo-

26 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

ment, but one after the other, as the fore-feet do,
and in this movement the right foot is raised and re-
placed a little in advance of the left, but the differ-
ence, in this pair at least, is almost insensible ; there-
fore we may consider the gallop accomplished in
three measures or beats.

The first is marked by the left fore-foot touching
the ground, the second by the right, and the third
by the fall of the two hind-feet. This cadence is so
clearly perceptible that it may be musically meas-
ured. Every one perceives it, and even poets imitate
it in the construction of their verses :

Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum.

It is understood, of course, that if the horse starts
from the left fore-foot instead of the right, the same
movement takes place, but in inverse order.

In this gait the rider experiences only agreeable
undulation. We speak in general, for there are
horses whose gallop is more disagreeable than their
trot, owing to certain peculiarities of structure or
vices in the training.

Thus we see that the movements communicated
by the horse to the rider vary, as we have said al-
ready, according to the gait, and also according to
the animal and the nature of the soil gone over.

In walking, the cavalier follows the movement of
the horse almost exactly, and retains the same posi-
tion, but in trotting it is quite different. When the

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 27

horse throws himself forward on two feet placed
diagonally he imparts to the rider an impulse which
will be suddenly arrested when he comes down upon
the other two. It is this sudden stop which causes
the shock, the rebound which we all feel when trot-
ting on horseback, however gentle it may be, and
which is repeated at every step.

The direction of the movement which is communi-
cated to us is the result of several forces.

First. It is proved that when two bodies move
forward, one upon the other, the upper one always
inclines to go beyond the perpendicular line.

Secondly. The forward movement of the horse
takes the rider with it, and urges him in the same
direction.

Thirdly. The shock is received at the point of sup-
port, while the weight in consequence of the velocity
acquired acts always upon the upper portions of the
body, and causes them to continue the forward
movement.

Fourthly. In the act of leaping, the horse raises the
body upward as well as forward, and the weight
which causes it to fall again when the horse marks
the second measure, that is, makes the second move-
ment, still more increases the severity of the reac-
tion. The result of all three forces combined is to
urge the rider forward on the line of a slight curve.

In galloping, however, the movement is much
more simple. It consists almost wholly of a series of

28 IIORSE-BACfC KID ING.

oscillations from before backwards, and the reverse,
corresponding to the raising and falling motion of the
horse.

The other gaits which a horse may be taught to
take, or the precautions which may be necessary to
avoid them, cause a number of special movements, into
the details of which we cannot enter.

Every horse does not communicate absolutely the
same movement, but the differences are entirely in-
dividual, and it was long since settled that certain
varieties are particularly adapted to the saddle ; and,
lastly, the nature of the ground modifies the move-
ment communicated, as, for example, a pavement, or
extremely hard road, returns the whole force of the
shock, while a softer and more elastic surface greatly
lessens it, and on heavy ground the greater effort
necessary on the part of the horse soon fatigues both
him and his rider.

Now that we have explained the horse and his
gaits, and the causes which may modify them, that
we know, in a word, the movements which are com-
municated by him, let us see what active part the
rider takes in horse-back riding.

As long as the horse remains motionless the rider
has no movements to make which are peculiar to horse-
back riding that we need to discuss here, but as soon
as he moves the active role commences. The im-
pulse received from the movement of the animal dis-
turbs and changes his centre of gravity ; he then

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 29

interferes to check this disturbance of his equilibrium,
or recover it, if it be lost. Two forces contribute to
these results : the proper management of the weight
of the body and the muscular contraction. The cen-
tre of gravity, which is simply the point of union of
the forces resulting from weight, contributes greatly to
the firm maintenance of the seat, if it falls directly
and vertically upon the saddle, but if it is greatly dis-
placed, it includes the whole body, and increases the
effect of the movement communicated to it.

In walking, which is a regular gait, this displace-
ment is next to nothing ; therefore we will not insist
upon the inconsiderable movements caused by it,
since all the active interference of the rider is confined
to a small pressure of the knees determined by the
adductor muscles of the thighs. Nevertheless the
rider can scarcely avoid a slight swaying of the upper
portions of the body against which the sacro-lumber
and long dorsal muscles react, and hold back the
spine and thorax and with them the centre of gravity
from their constant tendency to fall forward.

This almost permanent contraction of the muscles
brought into action — and which might be termed a
state of active immobility, since its effect is to fix
the points upon which it acts and maintain them in
a quiet state — becomes fatiguing if kept up for any
length of time.

The trot is of all gaits the one requiring the great-
est number of movements on the part of the rider,

30 HORSE-BACK RTDING.

because it most disturbs the centre of gravity ; but it
is also, if we except the walk, the one which can be
indulged in longest, by both horse and rider, be-
cause of the great number of muscles brought into
action, and which seem to divide the labor and pre-
vent fatigue from being felt as soon as when the
number of muscles is smaller.

The reader may judge from this explanation of the
communicated movements how complicated they are,
and those executed by the rider himself are not less
so, as the following analysis will show.

The rider sits on the saddle with his thighs firmly
pressed against it, the knees also, though not too
hardly, the leg free, with the foot resting in the
stirrup in order to aid in supporting the knee, for on
the fixity of the point of support furnished by the
knee depends the solidity, as on the proper position
of the body and the centre of gravity does the firm-
ness of his seat. This pressure, which should be
stronger than in walking, since the disturbance is
greater, is effected as we have seen by the adductors
of the thighs.

With the knees so fixed, the trunk no longer obeys
the forward impulse, or at least the displacement in
this direction is much diminished, and there is little
more than slight vertical movement, from below up-
wards, which takes place when the ischium leaves the
saddle to fall again by the force of gravity. This is
not the case with the superior portions of the body,

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 31

head and thorax, which, endowed, so to speak, with
movement independent of those of the trunk, seem
to be subject to some foreign influence, though they
have in fact received the same impulse, but trans-
formed and exaggerated by the force of gravity act-
ing most strongly upon the parts furthest removed
from the trunk, and the more easily in proportion to
their mobility.

This force when strongly applied may cause the
fall of the rider, but when utilized and applied judi-
ciously renders his seat firm and secure.

The sacro-lumbar and long dorsal muscles, by
drawing the chest and head backwards, cause the
centre of gravity to fall behind the perpendicular line,
and oppose a certain resistance to its displacement
forward. The strength of the muscular contraction,
in order to effect this object, must be in proportion
to the impulse imparted to the trunk.

In galloping, the rider is conscious only of an oscil-
lation backwards and forwards alternately, and the
flexors of the thigh, the psoas and sacro-lumbar mus-
cles are especially called on to restore any consider-
able displacement, to recover the centre of gravity,
whether it be thrown forwards or back, according to
the need, while the adductors fix the knees.

We may in this way explain the theory of horse-back
riding in reference to its mechanical action, and if
from it we may infer that gravity contributes towards
restoring the equilibrium which it has helped to de-

32 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

stroy, we see also that it is the muscular contraction
which brings it, and that it also determines the fixed-
ness of the points of support, and that the muscles
are the agents of the movements.

But we should strangely deceive ourselves if we im-
agined that those muscles only act which have been
named in studying the movements of the equestrian.
There is not, perhaps, a single muscle which does not
come into play in horse-back riding, either for pre-
venting a displacement or restoring a disturbed equi-
librium. It is not necessary for them all, however, to
contract with the same energy, and while some, as the
adductor muscles of the thigh, the sacro-lumbar and
long dorsal muscles, may be termed essentials, others
intervene only accidentally, as it were, or to meet
certain exigencies, or produce special movements, as
in the high school exercises, parades, etc.

Others are assistants merely of the muscles which
we call essentials, and may be termed auxiliaries,
and, lastly, we know that when a muscle causes a
movement in a certain direction, there is always one
or more the action of which is opposed to it, and
which are therefore called antagonistic.

IV.

PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF HORSE-BACK RIDING.

" How much wagon-driving ' granny '-fashion, with swathed legs,
will give our young men's chests an inch in breadth, or add an
ounce to their attenuated calves.

" If riding on horseback were the fashion, as it ought to be, New
York parties would present less frequently the lamentable spectacle
of cavaliers the same height and not half the breadth of their part-
ners. The narrow-shouldered, lanky beaux who haunt our ball-
rooms are standing appeals to the Park Commissioners to do any
thing that in them lies to bring back amongst us the ancient and
manly art of riding on horse-back. Nothing will do so much to
toughen our muscles and inflate our lungs."

Hygiene, by F. H. HAMILTON, M.D., 1859.

HORSE-BACK riding is specially adapted to the phys-
ical development of man ; its effects reach every func-
tion, but as they are each and all inseparably con-
nected, no one of them can increase in energy without
augmenting the action of the others. Thus horse-back
riding rouses the weak ones, restores and maintains
the equilibrium, and establishes harmony between
all the physiological phenomena of life. In this lies
its hygienic and therapeutic power.

In studying this part of our subject, we propose to
examine successively the modifications caused by it
in the exercise of each one of these functions, and
naturally commence with the act which provokes all

34 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

others and which is the point of departure — that is,
muscular contraction.

I. Muscular contraction. — The will commands, the
muscle obeys and contracts. What is the agent of
that contraction ? No one doubts the contractile
property of muscular fibre, but it is powerless with-
out the intervention of an external influence, upon
the nature of which physiologists have long disputed ;
some giving to nervous excitation an importance
which it certainly does not deserve, while others
make the blood play an exaggerated part.

All our present knowledge of this subject is ad-
mirably summed up in Gavarret's excellent work,
" Les Phenomenes Physiques de la Vie." According
to the learned professor, the closest possible con-
nection exists between contractibility and the phe-
nomena of combustion which takes place in the
network of the capillaries of the muscles. In fact,
when a muscular contraction is to be produced, the
nervous action is confined, so to speak, simply to giv-
ing an impulsion to the muscle, thus preparing it for
the action of another agent, the blood. The arterial
blood flows into and abundantly fills the capillaries
which permeate the muscle. The oxygen which it
contains burns with fresh energy the combustible
materials which it carries ; these are the products of
digestion, fatty and saccharine matter chiefly, with
some of the proteine substances.

The result of these internal combustions is the

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 35

production of carbonic acid and water, and to these
may be added azote, urea, or uric acid — which are
derived from the complete or incomplete oxydization
of the quaternary substances ; and, lastly, heat is
engendered. The carbonic acid, the azote, the
water, urea and uric acid are carried away by the veins
which spring from the muscle and eliminated from
the circulation by the different emunctories of the sys-
tem ; but what becomes of the heat which is liber-
ated by this combustion ? The temperature of the
muscle in which these chemical transformations are
effected is raised, it is true, but this elevation of the
temperature is far from being in proportion to the
quantity of substance burned ; but a new phenome-
non is meanwhile produced : the muscle is con-
tracted. This contraction of the muscle is of the
greatest importance, since it balances a certain
weight — it represents the result of a process which
has absorbed the heat that has apparently disap-
peared. ' Thus, while the muscle acts, the heat
produced by the internal combustion divides itself
into two complementary parts. One appears as sen-
sible heat and regulates the temperature of the
muscle ; the other part, by the intervention of mus-
cular contractility, is converted into mechanical
force."

These phenomena invariably succeed each other,
and they are the inevitable consequence one of the
other. The chemical action takes place first and

36 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

produces the heat ; then the fibres consume a portion
of this heat, converting it into mechanical force.

A great number of facts support these propositions,
and brilliant experiments corroborate them. It has
been demonstrated that the temperature of a con-
tracting muscle rises, that it absorbs more oxygen
and exhales more carbonic acid when in action than
when in repose, and, lastly, that the energy of the
contractions is in direct proportion to the activity
of the internal combustion. The real agent, there-
fore, of muscular contraction is the heat produced by
the combustion, of which the muscles are the seat,
resulting from the conflict between the blood and the
nervous system. According to Mayer, " a muscle is
simply an apparatus by which a conversion of forces
is effected, but it is not the substance by the chemical
change of which the mechanical effect is produced."

The contraction of the muscle, then, causes a fresh
portion of the arterial blood to enter the organ in a
far greater portion than would flow to it in a state of
repose, and consequently the capillary circulation of
the muscle is accelerated. The phenomena of com-
bustion accomplished, the venous capillaries carry
away this blood charged with the products of oxydi-
zation, while the contraction, the result of the chem-
ical action, aids in the disgorgement of the muscle
in order to give place to a fresh arterial flood which
will produce a fresh contraction. Of all the products
eliminated by this process carbonic acid is the most

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 37

important and most easily produced by experiments.
It is evidently formed in the muscle, for the blood
contains before entering it much less than is found
after its exit, and it is formed during contraction,
since after contraction the proportion is increased.

It has been found that the venous blood contains
an average of 6-75 parts more of carbonic acid than
the arterial, when the muscle is in a state of repose,
and iO'/9 when it is in a state of contraction.

If the action of the muscle is too long continued,
the increased circulation in its substance is no longer
sufficient to carry away the products of combustion,
which goes on incessantly, so they accumulate in the
muscle and a new product is formed there — lactic
acid. Then the muscle loses its elasticity, its energy
and precision ; movement becomes painful, combus-
tion is less active, there is a decrease in power, and
we have an exhibition of the phenomenon termed
fatigue. Repose, by allowing the venous blood to
carry the products injurious to the economy, by
lessening the intensity of the combustion, which is
the cause of the trouble, removes all these symptoms,
which might be produced, on the other hand, in an
animal in a state of repose, by a simple injection of
lactic acid into the substance of the muscle.

This activity of the circulation has another object
and effect, that of carrying to the organ a still
larger quantity of nutritive matter, which it assimi-
lates. It is shown by experiment that a muscle ex-

38 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

ercised regularly and moderately, increases in volume
and in strength. At the same time, while gaining in
size it improves in quality. The fibre has more tone,
is more elastic, more patient, and more precise in its
action. All these qualities are developed to their
highest degree by horse-back riding. This is an in-
contestable fact which we may see proved every day
by riders, who cause their horses to execute the most
complicated movements often impossible to demon-
strate ; when we see them attain, by force of habit,
the power of continuing for long hours exercises
which they could not endure for a tenth part of the
time when first beginning the practice, and see them,
though frail and delicate in appearance, endowed with
the most surprising muscular energy.

Horse-back riding does not indeed develop such
athletic forms as result from some gymnastic exer-
cises. It brings a great number of muscles into
action, sometimes simultaneously, sometimes succes-
sively ; it does not require great power in action, but,
continued and often repeated, increasing according to
its needs. It would be useless to produce large and
powerful muscles were they not resistant and patient.
Here the muscular fibre trains itself rather than grows.

Let us observe here, that the muscles which act
directly in horse-back riding are not the only ones to
participate in the advantages resulting from it. In
those which act antagonistically the same tonicity is
perceived ; they acquire spring, as it were.

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 39

Horse-back riding is therefore a general education
of all the muscles much superior to that of fencing,
for example, which includes that of only one member
totally neglecting the other. This explains why the
right arm is more developed than the left, in fencing
masters and those who practice fencing much, and
that the right shoulder is so much higher than the
other — the passes and thrusts being more frequent
with the right hand than with the left. On the other
hand, the left leg is much more developed than the
right, because upon it rests the whole weight of the
body.

2. Circulation. — We have seen how the circulation
of blood is accelerated in a muscle during contrac-
tion, and we have noted also the great number of
muscles which participate in horse-back riding ; it is
not difficult, therefore, to conceive what an influence
it might exert upon the phenomena of circulation.
The impulse originating in the muscles extends to
the whole circulatory apparatus, the blood moves
everywhere with new force, the capillaries are in-
vaded on every side by the torrent seeking an outlet,
the swollen veins pour their surplus into the heart,
the general commotion communicates itself to the
central organ of the circulation, the venous blood is
driven into the lungs, where it is exposed to the
closest possible contact with the air, and there parts
with its useless constituents, imbibing oxygen in their
stead, and, impelled by a fresh wave, it hastens back

40 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

to the heart, from which it again at once departs to
repair the losses which the arterial blood has suffered,
and to cause a new muscular contraction. The
whole system is in action, and the blood penetrates
abundantly and fills the entire vascular system, where
before it entered insufficiently and with difficulty.

It is interesting to study, first of all, the manner in
which the blood acts in the capillaries. A knowledge
of the facts will enable us to explain a number of
phenomena which we shall notice further on.

In the structure of the vessels which form the con-
tinuations of the smaller arteries, muscular fibre pre-
dominates. The play of these fibres, which differ
essentially in their anatomical elements from those
which we have heretofore studied, is independent of
the will. It is governed by a special system of
nerves, springing from the grand sympathetic and
also some of the spinal nerves — the vaso-motors — and
according as these nerves are in action or inaction the
capillaries contract and dilate. The fibre cells are
not found in the minutest ramifications of these ves-
sels, but they are replaced by an elastic tissue which
follows the modifications of the muscular tissue and
contracts or augments the calibre of the canals which
it forms. Moral as well as physical impressions cause
important modifications in the circulation of the
capillaries. Every one is cognizant of the flush and
the paleness which accompany anger or shame, pain
or pleasure. But the vaso-motors are yet much more

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 41

sensitive to the influence of heat and cold. From cold
the muscular fibre contracts and lessens the calibre of
the vessels, the blood circulates less abundantly in
their cavities ; and paleness of the tissues which they
traverse and a lower temperature are the conse-
quences.

Heat, on the contrary, seems to paralyze these
nerves, and the muscular fibre no longer reacts against
the pressure from within, which, encountering less
resistance, dilates the vessel just in proportion. The
parts become red, swollen, gorged with blood, and
the temperature is increased. It is specially on the
surface and the extremities that we may observe
these phenomena, because the medium in which we
live is daily subjected to numerous influences which
lower the temperature ; it borrows, so to speak, from
the heat of the body with which it comes in contact.

The slight conductibility of the human body pre-
serves the internal organs from these daily losses, and
the blood which renews itself continually maintains at
the surface a relative warmth. But still the sensation
of cold causes the contraction of the capillaries over
the whole surface of the body, and the circulation is
enfeebled just in proportion to the energy, and, per
contra, it is frequently accelerated in the substance of
the organs contained in the visceral cavities. If the
cooling is slight, if the contraction in the capillaries is
infinitesimal, there is only a slight increase of tension
in the great arteries ; but if the capillary net-work is

42 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

considerably contracted, the quantity of blood re-
maining the same, the arterial tension can only check
the circulation to a certain extent, and for the double
reason that the circulation is less active and the
quantity of blood sent to the surface, where it would
be cooled, smaller, its temperature rises, and this
heat paralyzes the vaso-motors which govern the
capillaries of the viscera ; the calibre of these vessels
perceptibly augments, and the organs which they
permeate are gorged with blood. This is the ordi-
nary cause of visceral congestions. Such at any rate
is their fatal mechanism — and it is explained by the
inertia of the vaso-motors.

We have already seen how muscular exercise in-
creases and re-establishes the surface circulation by
augmenting the internal combustion, and thus giving
an impulse to the blood, accelerating its motion ; and
by raising the temperature of the surface of the body,
all these influences combined triumph over the con-
tracted vessels, they gradually relax, the blood re-
enters, and with it heat. This process continues until
the tension is equal or nearly so in all the capillaries
of the body. The blood rushes into them and no
longer gorges the viscera; these lose their congestion
in consequence, the vaso-motors come out of their
torpid condition in proportion as the heat circulates,
instead of concentrating in the centres.

What we have just said concerning muscular exercise
in general applies especially to horse-back riding, and

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 43

whether it removes congestion or causes the circula-
tion to increase in parts which are anemic, it always
favors the exercise of a function of the highest impor-
tance, since its deficiency in one case and its exagger-
ation in the other are the conditions from which mor-
bid phenomena spring.

Haller says, " Equitatio parum pulsum auget neque
calefacit." In fact, the heart beats more quickly
from the quickened motion of the blood, and the pulse,
which is the echo of the movement of the heart, marks
the amount of the increase.

Nick gives his observations of the variations of the
pulse caused by horse-back riding as follows : the
rider at a walk has his pulse quickened from fifteen
to twenty pulsations in a minute, and in trotting the
increase is greater, amounting to forty-two beats a
minute more than before the exercise.

In my researches on this subject, I arrived at nearly
the same conclusions; I remarked also that the in-
crease was greater in beginners than in those some-
what habituated to riding.

The pulse at the same time beats with more force,
it is full and hard, and at first we think the arterial
tension is augmented. It is well, however, to avoid
falling into this error, as it might be of great impor-
tance in the therapeutic application we might be
tempted to make of horse-back riding. Here, our
senses are unfaithful, they deceive us. The sphyg-
mometer of Marey reveals the true condition. The

44 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

instrument shows a diminution of arterial tension ; it
could not be otherwise, for the blood in the great
arterial trunks, finding less resistance from the dilated
capillaries at the surface of the body, flows more
freely. The result of this is less tension and less
resistance to the ventricular contraction ; this is
effected more brusquely, and the shock is perceived
more distinctly by the finger. It is this instantane-
ousness — which does not affect the circulatory ap-
paratus— which causes the apparent fulness of the
pulse.

The second proposition of Haller is equally true—
neque calefacit — but we must be careful to give it the
meaning attached to it by its author. Struck by the
increase of temperature which usually accompanies
fever, the physicians of former times did not separate
the idea of heat from that of fever, and the great
physiologists, in adopting their language, have per-
petuated their error. Horse-back riding certainly in-
creases the temperature of the body, for we have
shown that a portion of the heat produced by the
combustion which takes place in the muscles is ren-
dered sensible to thermoscopic measurement, but
this heat is not fever. It is true that on dismount-
ing, if the exercise has been somewhat prolonged, a
slight trembling is felt in all the limbs ; at the same
time the skin is rosy and moist, a gentle perspiration
exuding from every pore, but instead of the suffering
produced by fever there is a sense of comfort.

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 45

The increase of temperature is especially remark-
able at the surface when it may be relatively high ;
but it is far from attaining the same degree in the
central organs, it is there scarcely perceptible. The
natural cavities are the parts to be examined, be-
cause their temperature approaches nearest to that of
the internal organs. By taking the average of the
results which have been furnished, we find :

Temperature of the axilla increased i°

41 mouth " o°.6

The elevation of temperature is less, the nearer we
approach the centre, and it is probable that there the
increase would not be more than one or two tenths of
a degree.

These phenomena do not persist after the exercise
has ceased, and the system returns after a certain
time to its normal condition. The frequency of the
pulse, however, is perceptible yet after half an hour
of rest, and sometimes even longer.

3. Respiration. — Horse-back riding causes great
differences in respiration, as well as in the circulation.

All gaits, however, do not have the same effect
upon it. The walk, for example, affects it very
slightly; with the trot and gallop it is far different.
We have already seen the action of the diaphragm.
Occupied in assisting the muscles of the abdominal
walls to confine the viscera and repress their move-
ments, shaken as they are by the shocks of the trot,

46 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

it cannot take a large part in the act of respiration.
By its contraction, however, the thoracic cavity is
enlarged and gives entrance to a greater quantity of
air. The diaphragm takes part also to some extent,
though passively, in the act of expiration. The
viscera pass on to it the shock received by them at
each measure of the trot, which it resists, thereby
causing a slight relaxation of its fibres ; from this fol-
lows a contraction in the thoracic cavity, and the ex-
pulsion of a certain quantity of air. It may also,
when the motion of the horse is very gentle and the
rider makes no muscular resistance, take a more
active part in the respiration.

It is to the inspiratory muscles and to the fact that
the respiration becomes costal, that the increased
capacity of the lungs is due. The diaphragm being
contracted and the ribs powerfully raised, the chest
finds itself considerably dilated, and the air fully fills
the lungs. By the relaxation of the muscles, the ribs
descend, the capacity of the lungs is diminished, and
the vitiated air which they contained escapes.

But it is possible to produce a contrary effect. The
violent reaction of the trot of certain animals causes
the whole mass of the abdominal viscera to be thrust
forcibly against the diaphragm, thereby brusquely
expelling the air from the lungs. Respiration then
becomes painful and synchronous with the gait of
the horse, each expiration being short and sono-
rous. The inspiratory muscles are in a state of per-

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 47

manent contraction, keeping the ribs constantly
raised and scarcely yielding to the weight of the
chest, which at every shock, acted upon by gravity,
slightly falls. This condition causes an effort which
cannot be kept up long, and symptoms of intoxica-
tion caused by the carbonic acid gas soon make their
appearance ; for in this case the change of air which
should be effected in the lungs is much less complete
than when the inspirations are large and deep, and
fatigue soon supervenes. It was to soften the shock
and avoid these inconveniences that the English way
of rising in the saddle was introduced, which makes
the riding a hard trotting horse less tiresome.

In a rapid gallop, another phenomenon presents
itself — the difficulty of respiration. This is explained
by the greater pressure on the air contained in the
thoracic cavity, thereby requiring greater efforts for
expiration ; and it is to break this external pressure,
which, confining the air in the chest, hinders its exit,
that jockeys lean over their horse's neck and wear
large visors on their caps.

In studying muscular contraction, we have seen the
blood which brings the fuel for combustion load itself
with the carbonic acid and the vapor of water pro-
duced by the oxydization of the ternary substances.
These gases, if left to accumulate in the blood, imme-
diately become an obstacle to the performance of its
functions ; the veins collect this blood which has lost
its virtue and become useless, and carry it to the

48 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

different emunctories, where it is purified, and to the
lungs, where it is endowed with a new life. But by
this act of muscular exercise the proportion of hurt-
ful principles has increased, the need of active ele-
ments is still greater, that which was before sufficient
to meet the demand is now too little, and the activity
of the respiratory phenomena should correspond with
the respiratory. The surface of contact between the
blood and the air has enlarged, the number of respir-
atory movements has increased, the air expired con-
tains more carbonic acid than when in a state of
repose, and it has at the same time lost a greater
quantity of oxygen, and it retains a larger amount of
azote which is derived from the combustion of the
quaternary substances, and this exaggeration of the
respiratory phenomena has a limit. If the internal
combustion is always effected with the same inten-
sity, the moment comes when the circulation is no
longer able to carry away the products of combus-
tion which accumulate in the muscle, and end by
hindering the chemical action ; at the same time
bringing with it that peculiar sensation known as
fatigue. The phenomena do not cease here, for if
the exercise is prolonged beyond reason, the carbonic
acid does not all escape through the lungs ; a certain
quantity remairfs in the blood which returns to the
heart, and mingling with the arterial blood, produces
the accidents which we call cephalalgia, dyspnoea,
etc.

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 49

It is easy to explain the activity of the respiration
while riding. The normal number of respirations in
a minute is set down at 18 in the adult, but I have
found it to be 28 to 32 after a fifteen-minute French
trot. The English trot produces a little smaller
result. Under certain particular conditions, the num-
ber has risen to 55 in a minute. In a very rapid gait
the respiration becomes short and frequent.

Mr. Smith has thus tabulated the effect of mus-
cular exercise upon the quantity of air which enters
the lungs at each respiratory movement :

Lying down I -oo

Standing 1-38

Walking (a mile an hour) 1-90

Riding (at a walk) 2-20

Walking (two miles an hour) 2-76

Riding (at a gallop) 3-16

Riding (at a trot) 4-05

Swimming : 4-32

Running (seven miles an hour) 7-00

If it is conceded that a man takes half a litre of
air into his lungs at each inspiration when at rest, he
would take nearly double as much when walking his
horse — or one litre ; two when trotting ; but in a
gallop, when the reaction is a little less than trotting,
he would take one and a half. Enlargement of the
thoracic cavity is often observed in horsemen ; this

$0 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

peculiarity which predisposes to hasmatosis, is, accord-
ing to Woillez, to be attributed rather to the action
of the general muscular system than to the muscles
of the thorax or those of the upper portions of the
body.

And, lastly, there is a phenomenon which cannot
justly be separated from respiration ; it is the cuta-
neous exhalation, which is sensibly affected by
horse-back riding. In fact, the increase of the sur-
face circulation, by bringing to it a greater quantity
of blood, favors cutaneous respiration. The evapora-
tion of the vapor of water and the exhalation of
carbonic acid are increased, and more oxygen is ab-
sorbed by the skin. As we have already remarked
concerning the circulation, respiration becomes grad-
ually normal with repose.

4. Nervous influence. — If ever a subject has been
much discussed, much experimented and written
upon, it is certainly that which treats of nervous
action. What is its nature, its function, and how
does it act ? These are the questions we are
still led to ask, for if light has been thrown upon
some points, there are others which still remain in
darkness.

Physiology shows us the arterial blood penetrating
the organs, and there undergoing a transformation
into venous blood, and by this change performing a
work in relation with the parts to which it penetrates.
We have shown that the chemical action produces the

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 51

contraction which has for its result a mechanical
force, and we shall demonstrate that the same thing
takes place in the nervous system ; and that it causes
nervous action. But while the muscular action is
transformed into an external force, the nervous action
exhausts itself entirely in the interior of the economy,
and reduces itself to a simple intervention in the
functions of the organs which it animates.

The arterial blood, red and rich in oxygen, pene-
trates the nervous system, while the venous blood
comes out of it black and charged with carbonic acid.
This incontestable fact alone proves that in a state
of repose the organic materials of the blood burn in
the capillaries of the nerves and nervous centres, as
it does in the vascular net-work of all the tissues of
the organism.

When the nervous action is violent, as in anger, or
when the action is long continued, as in study, there
is an increase of the temperature of the body, and as
in muscular contraction, the nervous system when in
action absorbs oxygen and exhales carbonic acid; it
becomes fatigued and gives an acid reaction. It is
easy to convince ourself that after severe brain-work,
the proportion of urea in the urine is greatly in-
creased.

Schiff remarks that when a nerve has been excited
from any cause, the propagation of this excitement
is accompanied by an appreciable elevation of tem-
perature along the course of the nerve.

52 HORSE-BACK RIDING,

Vulpian has shown that the nervous fibre has a
peculiar action which he calls neurility. According
to this author, the action of the nervous cell takes
place only under the influence of the neurility of the
fibre, and the nervous centres lose all their activity as
soon as they cease to receive arterial blood. Ner-
vous power is the result of the action of the blood on
the brain and spinal marrow.

The same writer says again, we are led to the inev-
itable conclusion that neurility is the distinct fun-
damental independent physiological attribute of the
nervous fibre, and that the existence of this property
is inseparable from the integrity of the structure and
nutrition of the anatomical elements.

Gavarret thus explains the nervous action : "Like
the muscular fibre during contraction, the nervous
fibre under a direct excitant, or when propagating
some communicated excitement, is perceptibly in-
creased in heat. In the nervous as in the muscular
system, this momentary elevation of temperature is in
reality perhaps nothing more than the result of the
momentary increase of internal combustion. In view
of these facts, we cannot but recognize that neurility
and muscular contractility have the same relation to
heat. The activity of the nervous system and the
intensity of the internal combustion correspond to
each other and increase and diminish together. In
the nervous centres the result of combustion is trans-
formed into neurility, the different nervous filaments

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 53

collect this neurility, and, dispersed in all directions, it
goes to increase the activity of the different organs of
the system ; . . . . thus in the animal there are
three dynamic manifestations, the production of heat,
muscular contraction, and nervous activity, which are
derived directly from the action of the oxygen of the
air upon the organic materials of the blood."

The nervous action simply gives the impulse to the
phenomena of combustion ; once commenced, the
action of the oxygen upon the materials of the blood
continues and produces an effect out of proportion
with the primitive expenditure of the impulsive
force.

How can we refuse to recognize the immense influ-
ence that the circulation exercises over the production
of nervous phenomena ?

Then comes the question, if there does exist so in-
timate a relation between these two functions, circu-
lation and innervation, within what limits are they
exercised, and in what proportion does the disturb-
ance of one react upon the other ? However, what
seems incontestable is that the nervous tissue is sub-
ject to the same laws as the other tissues of the
organism ; like them, it is nourished, expands, and is
regenerated. The blood is the agent of these trans-
formations, and the circulation is effected in them in
the same manner as everywhere else, is subject to the
same modifying causes. The integrity of this func-
tion depends upon the integrity of the nervous ac-

54 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

tion. But if for a reason which it may be difficult
to explain, the nutrition of the anatomical elements
is insufficient, or the circulation is not normal,
whether there is anaemia or hyperaemia of the nervous
substances, these dynamic disturbances appear as ner-
vous disturbances, which often constitute a patholog-
ical condition.

Horse-back riding, as we have seen, is one of the
most energetic modifiers of the circulation ; it dis-
tributes the blood equally to every part of the capil-
lary net-work, giving to each part its due proportion,
by maintaining a due tension in every part, by equal-
izing the temperature ; it prevents equally anaemia
and hyperaemia, and sanguineous stagnation, by the
impulsion which it gives to the circulatory phenom-
ena, and aids nutrition by the acceleration of the
respiratory and digestive phenomena. It is by its
effect upon the reactions of the blood to the nervous
system that horse-back riding produces such a happy
influence.

5. Digestion. — The effect of horse-back riding
upon the functions of the system, is especially re-
markable upon that of digestion. It stimulates the
appetite — excites and perfects digestion, favors ab-
sorption— in fact, to use a trivial expression, " it
makes the bits go down." These are not the only
results of the new energy imparted to the functions
which we have studied, and all of which concur in
the accomplishment of this special one ; it exercises a

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 55

special influence upon the muscular fibre of the coats
of the stomach and the intestines. These viscera
may be considered as fairly suspended in the abdom-
inal cavity where they are barely held and limited
in their movements by the folds of the peritoneum.
Each shock from the horse shakes them and makes
them to roll as it were upon each other, and causes
the changes in the relations of the convolutions of
the intestines. These shocks and knocks and rub-
bings act as a mechanical excitant upon the muscular
fibre, which in consequence contracts with more
energy, preserving, however, the peculiar character
of the fibre-cells — that is, of contracting slowly and
successively ; the action of the fibre being increased
and the peristaltic contractions acquiring more power,
there results from it a more intimate mixture of
the juices and aliments in the stomach, a more per-
fect chymification of the food, and a more prompt
and complete absorption of matters already digested ;
and, lastly, all those which have, as yet escaped the
process are brought into the portions of the intestines
where their metamorphosis is effected. The stomach
emptied of food calls for a new supply ; hunger re-
minds us of this need, while a sensation of weight in
the anal region precedes defecation, an act by which
the remnants of the preceding digestion are expelled,
in order to give place to a new portion of matter
which may have in part escaped the digestive process.
The contractions of the great intestines by accelerat-

5 6 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

ing the natural movement of its contents greatly favor
defecation.

But the mechanical excitement of the muscular
fibres would soon exhaust its contractility if the
natural physiological agent, the blood, did not come
to its assistance. Every thing, in fact, combines to
cause it to flow into the alimentary canal — the pres-
ence of food, the increased activity of the circulation
caused by riding, the contraction due to the mechan-
ical excitement in the fibre cellule, and fed by com-
bustion. At the same time the glands, and the entire
secretory apparatus depending on digestion, gorged
with blood, furnish abundant material for their por-
tion of the work, and lead powerfully with the mus-
cular contractions in the elaboration of the materials
for new tissues.

The blood which enters the stomach penetrates also
the nerves which control it, and checks the fantasies
of this capricious organ.

The increased circulation has another effect, that
of promoting the venous absorption ; and the greater
pressure on the chyme in the alimentary canal, in con-
sequence of the contraction of the muscular fibre,
greatly favors its passage into the chyliferous vessels.

When the mechanical excitement of riding, like
that of the will, causes the fibre-cell to act, it acquires
more tonicity, the contractions cease to be languid
and furnish more effective aid to the work of diges-
tion. The effect of riding upon this last differs ac-

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 57

cording as the exercise is taken before or after eat-
ing.

In fact, if we ride when the stomach is empty, or
nearly so — for the organ is never absolutely in a state
of vacuity — the intestinal digestion is materially slack-
ened, and the exercise would hasten the transformation
and absorption of the substances which might be in
the stomach intestine, and induce hunger. But if we
ride immediately after eating, the diaphragm and the
abdominal muscles would compress the intestines and
the stomach, and might induce vomiting, or at least
regurgitation, while at the end of an hour or two the
fulness of the stomach would be relieved and no incon-
venience felt.

6. Nutrition. — The nutrition of the individual, the
consequence, nay, more, the object of all the other
functions which we have examined, is at once the
cause and the effect of all the physiological functions.
The impairment of any one of them reacts upon this
as the execution of the functions depends upon ana-
tomical elements.

The blood which circulates in the vessels is the
agent of all nutrition. It is composed of two parts :
the one fluid, the plasma, containing the albuminoid
substances, the products of digestion ; this alone is
capable of traversing the walls of the capillaries, and
placing itself in direct contact with the tissues ; the
other is solid, in the form of globules, and, by reason
of its bulk, could not pass through the vessels : both

58 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

concur equally in producing the phenomenon of nutri-
tion, but in different manner. The plasma consists
principally of water, which serves as a vehicle for the
albumen and fibrin, and combines with the anatom-
ical elements of the tissues, incarnates itself, so to
speak, and is metamorphosed with the elements which
it has just regenerated. It is thus that musculine, ner-
vine, osseine, chondrine, etc., are formed, all derived
from the albumen and fibrin, transformed by fixing of
a certain quantity of the equivalents of oxygen and
hydrogen in the proportions of water. In the same
way the saccharine matter in solution, fatty matters in
emulsion and mineral substances in the form of salts
in solution, pass through the walls of the capillaries,
and are carried wherever they are required. The
organized materials of the tissues, on their part, are
subjected to oxidation from the oxygen exhaled
from the vessels with the plasma, an oxidation more
or less complete, which transforms them, renders them
unfit to do their duty, and they return to the circu-
latory mass, and are carried by the veins to the different
emunctories to be eliminated in the form of creatine,
urea, uric acid, choleic acid, etc. Such is the process
of assimilation and elimination which takes place in
the tissues, and it is active just in proportion to the
circulation it augments or diminishes. It is particu-
larly in the muscles that this incontestable fact may
be seen.

It is in the rich vascular net-work of the circulatory

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 59

apparatus that the phenomena peculiar to them are
subject to considerable exaggerations in order to sup-
ply the combustion rendered necessary by the con-
tractions, though in such cases assimilation is carried
on faster than the waste, and the muscle is better
nourished when active than when in repose. This
explains the development of the muscles under the
influence of exercise.

The protean substances are not intended only to
supply the materials necessary for the renewal of the
tissues ; they do not penetrate to every part of the
vascular net-work ; a certain portion remains in the ves-
sels which has another destination. ;<The albumin-
ous aliments play a double action in the economy ;
when once introduced into the circulation, they divide
into two portions : one is assimilated and serves to
renew the tissues, and the other is burned with the
fatty and saccharine matters of the blood. These
internal combustions produce a reserve force which
furnishes the sensible heat necessary to maintain the
temperature of the body, and the heat which is
transformed into muscular power." (Gavarret.)

The blood, which incessantly loses in the processes
of nutrition, combustion, and secretion, is regenerated
by the products of digestion which are being constantly
poured into its mass by the veins and the thoracic
canal, and the activity of nutrition therefore keeps
pace with that of digestion.

The red globules play an important part in the

60 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

phenomenon of nutrition. It is generally admitted
that they are formed in the vessels of all parts of the
system. They are born, live, and die there. The
albuminoid substances introduced into the blood by the
digestive process first undergo a transformation by pass-
ing into the globular state, and then they form a new
anatomical element, the globule which is nourished
like the others and is the seat of the double process of
assimilation and separation. Whether it is destroyed
in the physiological state is not known, but under
certain special pathologic conditions — hibernation, for
example — it evidently disappears. Suspended in the
plasma in immediate contact with the albuminoid
substances and the oxygen which they draw from the
lungs, the globules are in the conditions best adapted
for the most perfect nutrition. But in proportion as
they assimilate, they also disintegrate ; and fibrin, the
first degree of oxidation of the albumen, is the re-
sult of this separation. It is this fibrin engendered
by the globules, dissolved by the albuminous fluid,
which exhales from the vessels and goes to renovate
the tissues.

Physiologists have long recognized in the globules
the property of fixing oxygen. This gas seems to be
condensed in the globules, as it gives the same reac-
tion as ozone, which is nothing but condensed oxygen.
It is this oxygen which gives to the globules their
bright red color ; it is the oxygen which, by combining
with the albuminous substances, transforms them into

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 61

fibrin ; it is it also which burns the hydro-carbonated
saccharine and fatty matters of the blood, maintaining
the animalhe at, engendering nervous action, and caus-
ing movement. But when it has furnished all these
oxidations, where it is replaced in the blood by the
products of combustion which dissolve themselves in
the serum, taking the natural forms — water, azote, or
in the form of salts — carbonates, the globules be-
come dark red in color, and wither until they come in
contact with the air in the lungs, when they seem to
live again by charging themselves with oxygen.

We can see the importance of these red globules of
the blood ; they are the soul of nutrition, since they
engender the fibrin, which is the element of a great
number of the tissues, and store up the oxygen, which
is the agent of all combustions. In a state of health,
their number is nearly uniform, but under certain
morbid influences it considerably diminishes ; they
are destroyed and not renewed. Then nutrition is
insufficient. But of these two phenomena, which is
cause or which is effect, whether the failure is in the
nutrition or in the globules, we cannot tell ; they are
sure to accompany each other.

When we see the muscular contractions caused by
horse-back exercise give the impulse to the circu-
latory phenomena, and thence to the respiratory and
digestive ; when we see the chest expand and inspire
two litres of air instead of one half of one, the in-
creased amount of food, the development of the mus-

62 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

cles, etc., how can we refuse to admit that the red
globules — these other anatomical elements which are
in most favorable conditions for nutrition — also feed
and assimilate, and if in certain cases th'eir number is
insufficient for the needs of the system, that new
ones are formed and their proportion increased ?

We have already had occasion to refer to the role
filled by the hydro-carbonaceous elements of the
food, as well as the saccharine and fatty matter ;
those which in no way serve for the support or repa-
ration of the tissues of which they form a constituent
part are burned by the oxygen, in order to produce
heat and movement. If these aliments are in excess,
this excess is retained in the system, and the cellular
tissue is fixed upon whenever it is found as the place
of deposit, and thus adipose tissue is formed ; the
saccharine as well as fatty matters taking part in
its formation. But this tissue has not its own proper
life ; when once formed, it remains as it is, is not
assimilated, nor does it disintegrate ; it increases or
diminishes by juxtaposition or consumption, according
to circumstances ; it is a sort of reserve which is
drawn upon to supply insufficient alimentation and to
establish a kind of balance between the phenomena
of nutrition and waste. It is easy to conceive the
variable influence which horse-back riding might
exert upon the production of this tissue, according to
the expenditure of force which it might require and

HORSEBACK RIDING. 63

the quantity of elements furnished to the internal
combustion.

7. Secretion. — Horse-back riding does not exert
a special and direct influence upon the secretions ;
their activity is often only the consequence of the ac-
tivity of other physiological functions, and as they do
not concern our therapeutics, we will pass them with
a simple mention. Perspiration is the result of in-
creased surface circulation, and increases or diminishes
with it. Trotting induces it more than any other
gait in riding.

The mouth becomes dry in horse-back exercise, in
consequence of the rapid evaporation caused by the
frequent passage of the air through the buccal cavity,
due to the acceleration of the respiration. The sali-
vary glands are not excited as in mastication, and no
longer furnish sufficient saliva. As for the secretions
of the glands of the stomach and intestines, of the
liver and the pancreas, they regulate themselves ac-
cording to the needs of the digestion.

The activity of the cutaneous and pulmonary ex-
halation, the increase of perspiration and fluid secre-
tions in general, decrease in proportion to the quan-
tity of fluid eliminated by the kidneys. As to the
urea which they contain, numerous experiments tend
to show that muscular exercise, even when carried to
excess, does not materially increase or diminish it.
The presence of free azote in the expired air explains
this fact, as this gas is the result of the complete

64 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

combustion of the azotic substances, while the urea is
the product of incomplete combustion, as the uric
acid which always diminishes by exercise and increases
from inaction. These phenomena are, indeed, in per-
fect ratio to the activity of the internal combustion, of
which they are but the consequence.

The excitement of the muscular fibre of the bladder
by the shocks resulting of the motion of the horse
causes its contraction, and if it contains a certain quan-
tity of fluid, the desire for micturition soon makes itself
felt. Horse-back riding provokes it.*

* De Tequitation. Chassaigne. Paris, 1870.

V.

THERAPEUTIC EFFECTS OF HORSE-BACK RIDING.

Mr. Budgell, in The Spectator, 1711, writes : " For my own part, I
intend to hunt twice a week, during my stay with Sir Roger, and
shall prescribe the moderate use of this exercise to all my country
friends as the best kind of physic for mending a bad constitution
and preserving a good one.

" I cannot do this better than out of the following lines of Dryden's
— Cymon and Iphigenia :

" ' The first physicians by debauch were made ;
Excess began, and Sloth sustains the trade.
By chase, our long-lived fathers earned their food ;
Toil strung the nerves and purified the blood :
But we, their sons, a pampered race of men,
Are dwindled down to threescore years and ten.
Better to hunt in fields for health unbought
Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught.
The wise for cure on exercise depend :
God never made his work for man to mend.' "

LET us now study the relations of horse-back riding
to the general health and to certain diseased con-
ditions of the system. That it can aid greatly in re-
establishing the general health and curing disease, is
easy not only of comprehension, but of demonstra-
tion. If — and this we have already proved — this exer-
cise be capable of increasing the activity of the organs
of nutrition, of diminishing both the tendency to a
plethoric condition itself, of aiding the excretion of

66 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

superfluous or extraneous material, and tending to
remove, by increasing the activity of the viscera,
bodies which obstruct them, it must be a powerful
remedy.

Both reason and practical experiment demonstrate
in the most complete manner that the efficacy of the
substances employed by the physician consists above
all things in this : that these substances possess the
power either of calming super-excited or disordered
functions, or of increasing the activity of those organs
that perform their functions incompletely or too tar-
dily.

The most efficacious and reliable medicines are, it
is well known, those which influence the circulation
and excite moderate action of the skin (perspiration).
The knowledge of this fact is so general, that the
farmer, when his horse is stiff from work or cold, does
not permit him to rest, but exercises him until a
moderate degree of sweating is produced.

The effects produced by horse-back riding of course
vary, and should be graduated or adapted to the
wants of the economy or the requirements of the
disease : the walk, the trot, the gallop, as we have
previously learned, affect the system in different ways
and degrees, as do the amount and character of the
exercise.

Some horses are far harder to ride than others,
both temper and manner of moving influencing this ;
the mode of riding, the habits of the rider, and the

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 67

exercises in which he indulges, will all strongly
modify the effect produced on the system.

The results derived from horse-back riding are
therefore dependent upon and modified by the pace,
the duration and character of the exercise, the nature
and gait of the horse, the method of riding, and
habits of the rider.

General Diseases.

I. Morbid states of the blood.

a. Plethora (excessive fulness of blood). — This con-
dition, seemingly intermediate between health and
disease, consists in either an excessive amount of
blood or a superabundance of red globules — the
quantity being normal — that is an over-richness.

It is recognized by the redness of the face, caused
by the distension of the capillaries, especially those
of the cheeks, lips, and mucous membranes, by
the strong resistant pulse and the turgid condition
of the veins. It is often accompanied by loss of
appetite, constipation, a tendency to hemorrhages
and congestions, and a state of indolence and lassi-
tude. Its causes are to be found in, first, a too great
activity of the nutritive functions, aided by too free
a mode of living, and, second, in the want of sufficient
exercise.

While physicians are at variance respecting the
special treatment to be adopted in these cases, they

68 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

nevertheless all concur in recommending a less nutri-
tious diet and exercise.

b. Anaemia (poverty of blood). — The etymological
signification of this term does not accurately describe
the condition, for we do not mean a total absence of
blood, but a lowering of its quality, a decrease in the
proportion of the red globules. This condition is
caused by insufficient quality or quantity of food, by
defective nutrition, by loss of blood, by too severe or
too long continued mental occupation, or by chronic
diseases.

The decrease in the number of the red corpuscles
in the blood lessens the power of this fluid to carry
oxygen, and accompanied, as this disease very often
is, by a diminution of the albumen of the blood, in-
terferes with the transformations which are necessary
to the conservation of the human economy. The de-
velopment of tissue is diminished, the animal heat
decreased, and the energy of both nervous and mus-
cular systems lessened.

c. Chlorosis (green sicKness). — Though it may be
regarded as a peculiar form of anaemia, has a well-
marked idiopathic character, in that it very often
arises without appreciable cause. It has been re-
garded by many as an affection of the nervous sys-
tem, having its origin or seat in the sympathetic, but
it is more probable that the nervous affection is an
effect, not the cause ; that the nervous system is
equally affected with the other organs of the body.

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 69

Observation proves that any thing tending to interfere
with or disturb the nutritive function aids in develop-
ing any tendency which may exist to chlorosis. If
we add to the remedies usually and properly given,
iron, bitter tonics, nourishing food, etc., etc., the aid
which may be derived from horse-back riding, may
we not hope to cure in a short time an affection
which if left to run its course will inevitably produce
profound and irremediable ravages in the system ?

d. Cachexia. — Here seems a fit place to say a few
words upon a subject to which a proper amount of
attention appears not to have been directed, but
which is quite important.

However severely we may judge Galen, Borden, or
the others who have multiplied beyond measure, and
without reason, the varieties of cachexia, we cannot
deny their existence or their influence, following, as
they do, certain chronic maladies, which impress pro-
found modifications upon the economy.

It is unnecessary to examine in detail each form,
but it will suffice to simply name the commoner ones,
of whose existence there can be no doubt. They are
the paludean, the syphilitic, the mercuric, and the
scorbutic. In each of these, this exercise strikes at
once at the one element common to all, that state or
condition of languor or inertia of all the functions
which is the chief characteristic of the disease — a con-
dition which persists long after removal of the dis-
ease which caused it.

70 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

We are all aware of the great difficulty of removing
this cachectic taint from the system when its origin
has been miasmatic, as in fever and ague, for ex-
ample.

All is not done when the disease itself has been
met and overcome ; the harder task of reanimating
the disordered functions, especially the assimilative,
yet remains, for without this the sufferer cannot re-
gain his lost health and strength.

This is one of the cases in which we truly believe
that, by suitable equestrian exercise, we shall see con-
valescence go on with a rapidity almost impossible
without the aid of this powerful auxiliary.

c. Lymphatism (scrofula). — Lymphatism is the neu-
tral ground between the lymphatic temperament,
which is proposed as a normal type of health, and its
morbid perversion, which constitutes the scrofulous
diathesis. Although we are ignorant of the real
nature of this condition, we recognize as its charac-
teristic features a slowness and incompleteness of the
functions of innervation and hematose, and a want
of contractile power in the muscular and other tis-
sues, which impress upon strumous patients a distinct
and unmistakable character.

Although the relation between the lymphatic tem-
perament, and the existence in persons of such tem-
perament of strumous tendencies, is not yet fully
understood, yet clinical experience teaches us that
scrofulous affections once developed in lymphatic in-

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 71

dividuals not only run a more rapid course, but pre-
sent symptoms of greater intensity, and are more
rebellious to treatment than when they occur in peo-
ple of other temperaments.

Besides this hereditary disposition, scrofula may be
induced (how we know not) by causes such as ex-
cesses, privation, deficiency of fresh air, light, or
exercise.

From whatever cause it may have been produced,
our reliance is in dietetic and hygienic measures,
and the providing of plenty of fresh air, light, and
exercise, and these can scarcely be acquired in a
pleasanter or easier manner than by horse-back rid-
ing.

f. Rachitis. — Rachitis, a disease common to child-
hood, is characterized by a tendency to a softening
of the osseous or bony tissues, or rather to a non-
deposition of the earthy constituents in the bone, and
an alteration in the nutritive function.

It is a disease that of itself does not kill, but is
not on that account to be less feared.

Deficiency of stature, deformity of the lower ex-
tremities, curvature of the spine, a vicious conforma-
tion of the chest, early loss of the teeth, and a prem-
ature appearance of old age, which but too often
affect the children of the wealthy, are its offspring.

The pelvis in rachitic women is often deformed, so
that a natural confinement, if not absolutely impos-

72 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

sible, is but too often fatal to the child and danger-
ous to the mother.

In our struggle against the march of this disease,
we employ every possible means to aid nutrition
and assimilation. Diet, air, light, judicious and
moderate exercise, are all necessary.

" Horse-back riding," says Chassaigne, " claims
this privilege with more than one reason ; we have
already seen how it acts in the accomplishment of
the phenomena of nutrition ; we have also seen with
what activity the transformation of the products of
digestion into the tissues of the body takes place
under its influence ; we have seen how the mineral
constituents of the food fix themselves in the bone
when needed."

But this is not the limit of its useful influence. It
stimulates the function of digestion, aids in a greater
elaboration of its products, and requiring work from
the muscles, develops them and necessitates their
more solid attachment to the bones. The latter are
also enlarged and strengthened, for as the muscles
develop the prominences on the bones to which the
muscles are attached are increased in size.

The converse of this is also true, for when, in cer-
tain diseases of childhood, the muscles are not used,
the growth of the bones is often diminished, and
sometimes even arrested.

The tendency to a contraction of the chest is
directly opposed by the fuller breathing which this

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 73

exercise requires ; and where an inward curvature of
the thigh bone is threatened, the tendency is les-
sened by the action of the muscles in riding, and if
the limb be not straightened, at least a certain resist-
ance is opposed to the deviation.

g. Syphilis. — It may at the first glance seem
strange that a sufferer from this disease, possessing,
as it does, a well-marked specific character, can be
benefited by horse-back riding. Nothing is more
true, however ; and since the question is both a deli-
cate and serious one, we will give, as briefly and
clearly as we can, our reasons.

According to Fleury, that, "As in any ordinary
poisoning, the physician seeks not only to administer
an antidote, but to cast out of the body, by the
evacuations, the greatest possible quantity of the
noxious substance, so in syphilitic infection the aim
of the physician should not be alone directed toward
the virus situated in the infected blood, but he
should also strive to expel the poison through the
various eliminatories of the system."

Every now and then cases are met with which, in
consequence of constitutional idiosyncrasies or the
late hour at which the treatment is begun, or some-
times owing to its being badly directed, stubbornly
resist all specific remedies. The disease persistently
increases in severity, the symptoms multiply, and,
above all, tend to become permanent, and, finally, a

74 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

true cachexia is developed, whose termination is but
too often the grave.

Sometimes the venereal poison at the very outset
produces a change in the blood, the proportion of the
red globules being decreased while the water is in-
creased. In a more advanced stage of the disease, the
anaemia may be the result partly of the disease and
partly of the prolonged action of the medicines em-
ployed ; the functions of the skin may be seriously in-
terfered with if the eruption be very severe ; the
strength may be exhausted by profuse salivation, or
insomnia may be produced by the violent nocturnal
pains which sometimes accompany this disease.

In all these conditions, the anaemia manifests itself
by its characteristic symptoms, and it becomes abso-
lutely necessary to aid the forces of the organism.

There is ^sometimes a stage of this disease which
varies greatly as to the time at which it appears,
where the poison seems to exert almost all its power
in the production of gummy tumors or a diffused
sclerosis, These growths may invade any part or
organ of the body, and, developing in the meshes of
any tissue, may either, by mechanical pressure or
by replacing the normal tissue, interfere with or en-
tirely suppress the function of the part invaded.

The danger to be feared from these growths is
dependent in a great measure upon their situation,
those affecting the viscera or nervous centres being
much more grave than when developed elsewhere.

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 75

When the nervous mechanism is invaded, the ut-
most attention and care is requisite on the part of the
physician, since symptoms almost inappreciable are
oftentimes the most precious indications to the ob-
server. The progress of the disease may be so slow
and insidious as to deceive the vigilance of the most
careful physician. Very often the sufferer from this
disease cannot account for the gradual loss of both
mental and physical power and of weight.

If these are accompanied by functional disorders,
especially nervous ones, which may be slight and of
short duration, the sufferer is led to believe that there
exists no cause for uneasiness, when in fact they are
potent indications of a most serious and grave con-
dition.

The physician is seldom called upon until the
lesions are of a pronounced character. If by a fortu-
nate chance he is called upon in time, he may fore-
see their possible development, and take effectual
measures to prevent it.

It is in the latter cases, when there yet remains in
the organism some power of resistance, that horse-
back riding, in addition to the proper specific reme-
dies, will be of great service ; we do not presume to
say in attacking the disease itself, but in placing the
economy in such a condition that it can resist ulterior
attacks, and the physiological may overcome the
pathological state.

//. Gout. — Gout is an anomaly of the organism

76 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

under whose influence pathological conditions of the
system of a determinate character are produced.

Scudamore regards gout as the result of the dietetic
habit of the individual, and says that : " Any con-
dition or occupation which leads to inactivity and re-
pletion, or in which one only takes passive exercise,
leads to gout."

With us here, however, the question is not as to
the nature and causes of the disease — since its symp-
toms are characteristic, and but. too well known — but
how are we to prevent another attack ?

The experience of every day confirms the truth
of the statement that active exercise prevents gout.
We know that laboring men rarely suffer from this
disease unless there be in them an hereditary disposi-
tion.

The treatment of a gouty patient in the interval
between the attacks, whether they be regular or
irregular, must of course be chiefly dietetic ; the in-
stances are not few where men of strong will, men
masters of, not slaves to their appetites, having been
warned by one attack, have thenceforward resolutely
abstained from rich living and strong drink of all
kinds, and have been rewarded for their self-denial
and prudence, if not by complete immunity from all
further assaults, at least by very few and feeble visi-
tations ; on the other hand, there are many who,
possessing a gouty tendency, know only too well,
from personal experience, that a. single debauch, or

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 77

sometimes a single glass of wine, or the excessive
indulgence in animal food may lay them prostrate in
the grasp of their enemy.

I am sure that total abstinence will well repay any
young man who has any tendency to this disease, for
any supposed privation.

With the old, however, the case is different, and
this is especially so when the health has been broken
down by disease. They must be allowed daily a cer-
tain quantity of their accustomed good cheer, or they
become an easier prey to their enemy. Here we
must venture as well as we can between the opposite
dangers, between the Scylla of excess and the Cha-
rybdis of abstinence and debility.

The same is true in regard to exercise : the young
and hearty can scarcely take too much ; the old and
debilitated may, by once over-exerting himself, bring
on an attack.

" Although I can do little more than point out
general principles for your guidance, I may remark, in
reference to exercise, that it should never be violent,
that it should be habitual, daily — not used by fits and
starts, and interrupted by fits of indolence or inac-
tion ; and that it should be active, muscular exercise,
as distinguished from passive exercise or gestation.
No mode of exercise is as good as walking, and with
this may be agreeably and beneficially conjoined riding
on horse-back." (Watson, " Practice of Physic.")
Sydenham, in his " Tractatus de Podagr. et Hydrop. "

78 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

(1683), says °f exercise in this disease : " Exer-
cise practised daily and long continued prevents
this misfortune, by dissipating with the sweat the
humor of the gout ; as to the exercise to be chosen,
horse-back riding is preferable to all others, when
the sufferer is not too aged, and has not the stone.
And, indeed, I have long thought that were a man
to discover a remedy as efficacious for gout and
most chronic diseases as long-continued exercise on
horse-back, and make a secret of it, he would gain
great riches."

/. Diabetes. — Diabetes is a constitutional affection,
characterized by the secretion of a large quantity of
urine containing sugar ; urgent, constant thirst, diffi-
cult to allay ; a voracious appetite, and a progressive
loss of flesh. Though many theories have been ad-
vanced as to its cause and nature, they only teach us
that there exists some anomaly of organic metamor-
phosis, due especially to a disturbance of the function
of assimilation or innervation. The disease is to-day
no longer beyond the resources of the healing art.

When diabetes is the result of over-exertion of
some function of the economy, especially if of the
nervous system, and the glycosuria is in that unde-
termined state which certainly is not health, and can
scarcely be called disease, then exercise is impera-
tively indicated.

The following extracts from Chassaigne support
the above view : " M. Bouchardat, in his magnificent

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 79

studies on the treatment of glycosuria, points out
the beneficial results of horse-back riding, and had
he but insisted more strongly upon the use of that
remedy in the treatment of this disease, we would
have had nothing to add to the patient researches
of the learned professor."

Bouchardat, led to do this by the practice in use in
the training of pugilists, in sending his patients to
labor in the fields, or to undergo a course of training
in the gymnasium, had in view principally the attain-
ing of two results : 1st. The absorption of a greater
quantity of oxygen ; 2d. The burning of a greater
quantity of sugar.

" Under the influence of more rapid movements, a
greater quantity of air is introduced into the lungs, a
greater quantity of oxygen employed, and a greater
quantity of heat and force produced ; that heat and
force necessitate a greater consumption of the alimen-
tary materials, and that which undergoes easiest this
change is sugar. It results, that being destroyed in
greater proportion, it can no longer appear in the
urine, and that we can thus by forced exercise utilize
a greater quantity of the glycosuric aliments." (Bou-
chardat, " Du Diabete Sucre ou Glycosuria, son traite-
ment hygienique," Paris, 1852.)

Probably there is no form of exercise which fulfils
more completely the indications so clearly formulated
by Bouchardat than horse-back riding. Though not
as severe, and the results less than those obtained

So HORSE-BACK RIDING.

from the same number of hours per day spent in a
gymnasium, the daily amount of exercise may be so
proportioned that the effect shall be equal, and that,
too, without causing so much fatigue.

The oxidations of sugar-forming material, if less
intense than in gymnasium training, are longer con-
tinued, and keep pace with the formation of the
sugar. It has the advantage of giving better air, and
some degree of mental occupation.

The pleasure to be derived from a ride on horse-
back will often overcome the disposition to laziness
and inaction which is very often a cause of injury to
the sufferer from diabetes, while the knowledge that
he had to undergo an hour's hard work would be
very likely to keep him away from the gymnasium.

j. Obesity. — Obesity is either the result of an
hereditary taint or of an acquired diathesis, and is
due to a deficient oxidation or combustion of those
substances which are transformed into fat in the
organism.

Alimentation, though it plays a great part in the
production of this trouble, is not its only cause, since
slowness of circulation, especially that in the capil-
laries, produces this condition. With the develop-
ment of this disposition, the chemical exchanges
which should take place between the blood and the
tissues are incomplete, the assimilative function is
disturbed, the action of the nerves which preside over
nutrition is altered, and the functions of the skin,

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 81

upon the proper performance of which so much
depends in this affection, are seriously impaired.

In order to favor the oxidation, and thus remove
from the system the materials which by successive
changes are converted into fat, it is requisite that the
rate both of the respiration and of the circulation be
increased, that the function of innervation be regu-
lated, that the absorption of easily assimilated sub-
stances be favored, that certain secretions be increased
in quantity, and that greater exchanges of material
take place in the body.

How can such indications be better fulfilled than
by proper exercise, added to a mode of living based
upon true hygienic principles ?

We must not, however, confound obesity with a
prcjugt fatal. Young ladies whose embonpoint, in
their opinion, is too marked, are dissatisfied with
that abundance of tissue, and wrongly regarding lean-
ness as beauty, strive by every means in their power
to destroy their health in order that the proper degree
of lathiness may be reached.

When in a young girl this tendency to the de-
velopment of an excessive amount of fat discloses
itself, the proper remedy is horse-back exercise and
moderation in diet. This is the true specific against
excessive embonpoint — not acidulated drink or sub-
stances which, destroying the health, remove not only
the fat, but at the same time all pretensions even of
beauty.

82 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

""A woman maybe beautiful without embonpoint,
but a really thin woman who, even at a distance, may
serve as a subject upon whom the student may
pursue his studies in osteology, cannot (even with the
grossest flattery), be called beautiful." (Bureaud.)

k. Intermittent Fever. — Intermittent fever some-
times disappears without treatment, but this is very
rare, and is almost always the result of removal from
the infected locality. Flight does not, however,
always effect a cure, since a single attack may have
produced so profound an impression upon the system,
that if the sufferer be not subjected to appropriate
and sufficiently long-continued treatment, he will, if
the disease does not return per se, suffer for years
afterwards from its effects.

A number of experiments have established the
fact that diaphoretics and violent muscular exercise,
taken just before the chill, will retard it, and in some
cases even cure the disease. (" Diet, des Sci. Med.
—art. Diaph.")

The English Hippocrates, Sydenham, regarded
horse-back riding as a most useful remedy in obstruc-
tions of the liver and spleen.

Ramazzini tells of a young riding-master whom he
cured completely of an obstruction of the spleen fol-
lowing an acute attack of fever by making him, not-
withstanding his debility and wretched appearance,
return to his occupation.

In the febrile condition of body following improp-

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 83

erly treated intermittent fever, there is no better ex-
ercise than horse-back riding, and we regard it as the
only sure means of restoring to the organs their lost
energy, of re-establishing the assimilative power, and
increasing the rate of oxidation in the system, and
consequently its temperature.

From whatever point of view we consider the dis-
ease we are now discussing, we are forced to conclude
that a modification in the nature and course of the
blood is the agent producing intermittent fever, and
that congestion of and enlargement of the spleen are
results of that modification.

Diseases of the Nervous System.

a. Hypochondriasis. — Hypochondriasis is a mental
disorder characterized by an exaggerated egoism.
There is frequently some functional disorder of the
brain or other organs, very often disease of certain
organs, especially those of nutrition — these derange-
ments being primary or secondary to the mental dis-
turbance.

It happens sometimes that the physician, unable to
discover the cause of the condition of his patient, or
fearful of being duped, denies the existence of hypo-
chondria as a disease. Here, however, a grave error
is committed, since the disease not only exists, but
with it is a faulty nutrition " of the brain, producing a
morbid sensitiveness as to the opinions and actions

84 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

of others, and an over-activity of the powers of
imagination and observation.

As hysteria is almost peculiar to women, so Jiypo-
chondriasis is confined almost exclusively to men.

We are prone to confound the seat of disease and
the cause ; the cause of hypochondria may be in
the region which has given it its name, or it may be
in any other part of the body ; the seat of the disease
is always the brain.

We know that epilepsy is sometimes caused by
intestinal worms, and that its seat is a determined
region of the cerebro-spinal axis. Is it not as great an
error to confound the cause and seat of the disease in
the one case as in the other ?

Hypochondria is, then, a cerebral neurosis, deter-
mined by an alteration in the tissue of the brain,
and characterized by an excessive over-excitability
of certain nervous elements. The mental disorders
resulting from it are only reflex results of disturbances
taking place in other parts of the body, and are
usually objective ; though sometimes they are purely
subjective, and are consequently entirely beyond
recognition.

The sick man alone, owing to his mental condition,
is capable of recognizing and appreciating them ; and
it is this morbidly sensitive acuteness which consti-
tutes the disease.

It must be understood, however, that a mental
predisposition to this state is necessary in order to

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 85

cause or develop this hypochondriacal condition, and
that it is only after long solicitation that the faculties
involved can be made to perform their functions in
the irregular way which characterizes the disease.
It is to this that the greater proportion of hypochon-
driacs in cities than in the country is due. In cities
the impressions made upon the mind in a given time
are much more numerous than in the country ; the
struggle for place, and even for existence, much
fiercer.

In the city very often the excessive mental labor
seriously impairs the bodily health ; in the country
the quiet daily routine is rarely departed from.

There is scarcely a physician in our large cities
who has not had sufferers of a nervous temperament
and an impressionable and irresolute character come
to him seeking relief from this malady. Anxious
beyond measure, melancholy in the extreme, per-
petually uneasy about their health, they everywhere
seek new remedies, and alas ! but only making the
fortune of some quack. They describe with the most
scrupulous exactness a host of diseases from which
they believe themselves to suffer.

To whoever will listen they will give the most
minute details of their existence ; each day they dis-
cover some new state or phenomena of their disease.
Their minds continually dwelling upon the thought
that a sudden and perhaps a very near death may
come at any moment, they go to the physician and

86 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

beg him to employ any means to save them ; invari-
ably believing that he does not do for them all that
he can, or that may possibly be done, they finally be-
come imbued with the idea that their malady is in-
curable. Finally, they endeavor, by the perusal of
medical works, to determine for themselves the
nature of their ailments ; not understanding what
they read, or interpreting it badly, they finally reach
the conclusion that their body is a sort of a patho-
logical museum. Indeed, they believe that they have
not one but ten diseases, and sometimes more.

Some forms of hypochondria, where at the same
time there co-exist disorders of the organic life, and
mental disorders which border on aberration, are, we
well know, very rebellious to treatment.

Here it is of the utmost importance that the suf-
ferer be led to forget in some pursuit of pleasure his
trouble, to restore the muscular strength and to aid
the digestive powers. Can we not do these far better
by exercise on horse-back than by drugs ?

When not contra-indicated by disease of the uri-
nary organs, horse-back riding is the remedy for this
form of hypochondria. It shows to the patient his
strength ; it does not remind him several times a day,
as ordinary medicines would, that he is a sufferer, but,
on the contrary, makes him forget, while on horse-
back at least, his sufferings.

Besides, it exerts a very beneficial influence upon
the digestive apparatus, and thus overcomes the dys-

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 87

pepsia, whether this manifests itself chiefly by a ten-
dency to flatulence, or dependent upon catarrh of the
intestines, which is so often an accompaniment of this
disease.

In using this treatment, we would advise that an
easy-gaited animal be chosen ; that early morning be
the time selected ; that the pace be a gentle gallop or
canter, and that the exercise be not so prolonged as
to induce fatigue. But advising to-day horse-back
riding as a cure for hypochondria is only repeating
the recommendation of Sydenham, made nearly a
century ago. He relates a case of a young priest,
who, suffering greatly from this trouble, was com-
pletely cured by this form of exercise alone.

b. Muscular Debility. — Before studying the effect
of exercise upon the muscular system, a few words as
to the functions performed by muscular tissues are
necessary. Within all muscular tissue, more espe-
cially if they are exercised, active combustion takes
place, the heat evolved producing one of two
effects : 1st. If utilized immediately, it is converted
into motion ; it may be used to aid in the meta-
morphosis by which portions of the body are re-
newed or destroyed, or to increase the organic ex-
changes.

Muscular debility is generally the result of de-
rangement of the organic functions, and, finally, acting
reciprocally, seriously affects nutrition. Horse-back
riding cannot here fail to render signal service, since

88 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

it aids digestion, and at the same time furnishes
exercise for the muscles.

Muscular paralysis may be due to two causes : 1st.
To a faulty innervation, and, 2d. To defective
nutrition, which may render the muscles incapable
of responding to the stimulus of the motor nerves.

Friedberg. in a paper upon muscular paralysis,
states that, " When, as far as can be discovered, ner-
vous conductibility, power of will, and state of the
nervous centre are normal, paralysis may occur, and
that it is due to a defective nutrition."

Muscular atrophy is dependent upon lesions of the
cerebro-spinal axis of the sympathetic system, or
upon alteration of the nutritive power especially
localized in the muscles affected.

In the last forms of the two diseases above men-
tioned, in hemiplegia or paraplegia, where paralysis
is not complete, or where the power of moving has
in part been regained, in paralysis following hysteria,
and in localized forms of this affection, it is evident
that horse-back riding must be of great service.

It quickens the circulation, excites the nerves, and
as the movements required are generally those ex-
ecuted by many muscles working together, the dis-
abled part is solicited if not forced to become active.

c. Hysteria. — An affection characterized by ner-
vous derangement, producing spasmodic contraction
of the muscles, especially those of the throat, dysp-
noea, palpitation of the heart, a sensation as if a ball

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 89

were ascending from the stomach to the throat, a
dry convulsive cough, a disturbance of the digestive
organs, and often a strange perversion of the appetite.

The patient is sometimes sad, sometimes irascible,
and generally suffers from neuralgia.

The hysteric attack is but the manifestation of, not
the disease itself.

' The most admissible theory of hysteria is the one
which gives as the basis of the disease a trouble of
nutrition of the nervous system in its totality, as in
the central apparatus as in the peripheral." (Nie-
meyer.)

This disease is confined almost exclusively to
women, and, according to the researches of Briquet,
one half of them suffer from it.

Jaccoud gives as the reason why it affects women
alone, " that it is a disease of the moral and physical
nature, and is caused by the influence which the
affections or passions, more intense and less restrained
than in man, are allowed to exert upon the reason-
ing faculties ; and also that the nervous organization
of woman is such that a predisposition to this trouble
is created."

More influenced than man by all impressions
affecting herself, woman is less apt to control them ;
she is powerless to prevent the automatic and invol-
untary reactions which excitements produce upon her ;
and often tired of the struggle, even before she has
attempted it, she allows both will and reason to be

9° HORSE-BACK RIDING.

subdued by sensible and psychical impressions, of
which these two faculties alone should be the sover-
eign regulators.

It is now a recognized fact that the agent of the
materia medica proper seldom, if ever, does more than
palliate this trouble, and that the proper treatment
consists in appropriate regimen, suitable mental oc-
cupation and exercise.

In man there often exists an analogous state,
indicated by melancholy, fear, palpitation of the
heart, ringing in the ears, headache and disordered
digestion.

With these states we may group certain disorders,
having thei'r seat in the reproductive organs, such as
nymphomania, onanism, impotency, and sterility — all
caused by the same moral and mental conditions and
yielding to the same treatment.

d. Chorea (St. Vitus' dance). — A disease charac-
terized by irregular, tremulous, and often ludicrous
movements of certain portions of the body, usually
of the head and face, the movements being to a slight
extent under the control of the will.

After the disorder has persisted for a time, the
brain seems to become involved, and impairment of
the memory and irritability of temper result ; the
digestive organs become involved also ; sleeplessness
follows, and finally the general health suffers.

It is a disease of childhood and puberty, rarely oc-
curring before the age of six, most frequently between

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 91

six and seventeen, and but seldom at a more ad-
vanced period. It is very probable that any influence
capable of producing a strong and sudden shock to
the nervous system may become an exciting cause of
chorea ; thus fright is one of its commonest causes.
Irregular dentition, strong mental emotion, blows or
falls, the irritation of intestinal worms, etc., etc., all
may induce an attack.

A delicate constitution is a strong predisposing
cause.

In studying the effect of horse-back riding upon
anaemia and chlorosis, we saw how the digestive or-
gans were aided, the circulation quickened, the ner-
vous system strengthened, and the general tone of the
body improved.

In chorea, the co-ordination of muscular power
which horse-back exercise requires, together with the
moral influence exerted by it upon the sufferer, are
added to the beneficent effects before mentioned,
and cannot but be of great benefit, We now speak,
of course, of the disease in its beginning, when there
exists still a certain amount of control over the move-
ments of the body. Later on, the violence and
irregular nature of the muscular contractions may be
almost a bar to sitting on horse-back, yet here even
much may be done.

92 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

Diseases of the Organs of Respiration.

a. Phthisis. — Accidental or hereditary causes may
or may not develop the tuberculous diathesis ; when
developed, it may be grave or slight, curable or incur-
able. At least such is the only deduction that can
be drawn from the contradictory facts daily recorded
by chemical observers of the unexpected develop-
ment or absence of the rapid growth of or unlooked-
for recovery from that disease. From a diagnostic
point of view, nothing gives us a better account of
the differences of which tuberculous modifications are
susceptible than the more or less intense and persist-
ent effect experienced by the nutritive functions.

We may go further and state that the alterations
in the digestive and assimilative functions is the
proper characteristic of the morbid modifications of
the organism, upon which the development of tubercle
depends.

This is not a new theory, for, long before our time,
physicians and physiologists had recognized the fact
that any agent which tended to diminish the physical
energies of the system might give rise to tubercle ;
but it is only to-day that these views have received a
scientific demonstration.

A few years since, Royer-Collarc. called the atten-
tion of the physicians to an art which had been sadly
neglected, and, according to his statements, one from

HORSE- BACK RIDING. 93

which excellent results could be obtained. To this
he gave the name of Organoplastique-hygiene.

It consists in so controlling the nutritive function,
by means of suitably arranged alimentation and ex-
ercise, as to correct a faulty or vicious organic con-
dition, and thus replace a crumbling ruin by a sub-
stantial edifice.

As an example of the results procured by this sys-
tem, we may instance the training of horses for
racing, or of men for the ring or rowing. While I
cannot admit that hygiene possesses a generic power
sufficient to change the constitution of a man, I still
believe that it is capable of converting a diseased
condition into a healthy one, and of effecting this in
a person in whom disease has already manifested
itself, provided, of course, that no important organ be
too deeply involved. The indications for treatment
in this state or tendency are plain : to introduce into
the body materials from which fibrine to make the
tissues and blood discs to carry oxygen can be
readily made. In order to do this, two conditions
must be fulfilled : 1st. To select food suitable in
quality and properly prepared, and, 2d. To cause the
organs whose duty it is to elaborate and assimilate
the ingesta to perform their functions in a more per-
fect manner than they are doing under the influence
of the morbid condition.

Physical exercise, without doubt, is one of the best
means of intensifying the organic acts. Under the

94 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

influence of exercise, proportioned, both as regards
severity and duration, to the strength and condition
of the individual, the circulation is increased in force
and frequency, the amount of effete material voided
by the skin increased, the secretion of mucous mem-
branes lessened, and the digestive and assimilative
powers improved. One of the most efficacious means,
then, that can be employed by the physician, in cor-
recting vicious tendencies in an organ or rebuilding
a shattered frame, is a properly arranged system of
diet and exercise ; these two means are the foundation
upon which has been built up the science to which
Royer-Collard has given the name of Organoplas-
tique. We regard these means all the more favorably
since they not only work directly, but by causing a
portion of the psychical force which would otherwise
be expended in destroying the body, to be used in
opposing the disease, thus reducing the nervous ex-
citability, which is in certain cases the worst form
with which the physician has to deal.

Among the remedies that have been regarded by
both ancients and moderns as of especial benefit in
phthisis, exercise on horse-back stands in the first
rank.

Sydenham considered it the specific in such cases,
and probably the best way to show with what favor
he regarded horse-back riding is to quote his state-
ment :

" Some relatives of mine," says he, " who have

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 95

been attacked with that malady have been cured by
continuing for a long time that exercise upon my
advice. I certainly know that any other remedy,
however precious it might be, and any other method
would have been perfectly useless to them. It is not
only in slight cases of consumption, accompanied
with frequent coughing and loss of flesh, that horse
exercise has proved useful, but also in confirmed con-
sumptions, accompanied by night sweats, and even
by that fatal diarrhoea which ordinarily is a sign of
the last stage of the disease, and the harbinger of
death. " (" Dissert. Epis. de Passione Hist. , p. 476. ' ')

b. Bronchitis. — Beau divides all cases of bronchitis
into two classes : 1st. That form in which subcrepitant
rales are heard — there is more or less fever, and sel-
dom severe dyspnoea ; whether the attacks be acute or
chronic, they are not repeated, and complete recovery
or death is the sequel. 2d. Where the rales are mu-
cous, fever is generally absent, the dyspnoea may be
very severe, and tuberculosis, as a complication, very
seldom exists. Loud rales may often be heard in the
trachea. It is seldom that it proves mortal.

Horse-back riding, by increasing the amount of air
respired, and by the jarring motion communicated to
the respiratory organs, aids in the expulsion of the
mucus which obstructs the air tubes, and renders it
possible for air to reach the pulmonary vesicles.

c. Asthma. — There are two theories as to the
cause of this trouble : 1st. That it is due to bronchial

96 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

secretion. This view is the older one — the one advo-
cated by Galen and Celsius ; the other, that it is
caused by bronchial spasm, is the theory of Van
Helmont and Willis. With Beau, I believe that
nervous asthma is only an intermittent bronchial
catarrh, and that the dyspnoea, the feature of this
disease, is caused by the resistance which the mucus,
in the small bronchial tubes, offers to the passage of
air. It varies in intensity with the degree in which
the bronchi are obstructed.

Sonorous and sibilant rales are produced by the air
passing through these parts of the bronchial tubes,
which have a smaller calibre, on account of the
mucous deposit. They are louder and more numer-
ous during expiration, as then we have not only the
obstruction in the air tubes, but a diminution in the
size of the tubes themselves, due to the contraction of
the lung. Sometimes the obstruction is complete,
and then, no air passing, there is absence of all sound
in that portion of the lung — this is known as absence
of vesicular murmur. Rales and absence of vesicular
murmur may alternate with each other, since cough-
ing may render a complete obstruction incomplete,
or vice versd. Air is sometimes entrapped between
the terminal extremity of the bronchi and the mucous
obstruction.

The movement of expiration or of coughing tends
to compress it, but this tendency is resisted by its
elasticity, and the air cells are dilated, constituting

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 97

emphysema. The physical signs of this condition
are increased size of chest, a prominence of the
tissue between the ribs, and an increase in the in-
tensity of the respiratory sounds. This lesion bears
the same relation to asthma that dilatation of the left
ventricle does to insufficiency of the aortic orifice
or of the stomach in cancer of the pylorus.

We have seen that horse-back riding modifies the
functions of the organic life, as well as those of the
life of relation — just the ones that are affected in
asthma. By horse-back riding the cutaneous circu-
lation is intensified, excretion by means of the skin
increased, and, owing to the increase in the amount
of blood in the skin, the general circulation is modi-
fied, and therefore nutrition and muscular contrac-
tility ; the lymphatic circulation is quickened, and
thus in pathological cases serious infiltrations are
sometimes removed.

Organs of Digestion.

a. Dyspepsia — Gastralgia — Pyrosis. — Many writers
regard the functional troubles of the digestive organs
only as symptoms of some acute or chronic disease,
and not as distinct neurosis, no matter what relation
the nervous system may have to the disorder.

These writers would scarcely assign a place to those
alterations of sensibility and contractility of the
stomach and intestines which are known as gastro-
enteralgia.

98 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

Chomel, and with him a large school, regard pain,
and with good reason, as only of secondary impor-
tance in alterations of the digestive functions.

" There is," says Beau, " dyspepsia whenever there
is trouble, weakness, or absence of the digestive act,
whatever be its symptoms, and whatever be its
causes." He also regards any diminution, absence,
or alteration of the absorbable alimentary products as
a dyspeptic affection.

We say, then, that there is dyspepsia when the gas-
tric juice is abnormal, either as regards quantity,
quality, or both ; when from any cause the move-
ments of the stomach or intestines are lessened or
entirely wanting, or when the actions of the nerves
which control this act are altered — and then we have
a true neurosis.

It is seldom easy, it is more often impossible, to
determine with precision the seat and cause of dys-
pepsia. If we but think how complex are the phys-
iological conditions upon which perfect digestion
depends, how many and how varied are both the
articles submitted to the action of the digestive work,
and of the elaboration and transformations which
they are to undergo, before they reach either the
liver or lungs, we will no longer wonder why the
point of departure from the proper way escapes our
notice.

Though Cl. Bernard's discoveries have greatly
enlightened us, yet it is but too true that a dyspepsia

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 99

regarded as having its origin in the stomach may de-
pend upon functional lesions of the intestines, or of
the spleno-hepatic apparatus. Clinical observation
leads us to regard dyspepsia as essential, sympto-
matic, or sympathetic — the latter being the result of
pathological reflex actions.

According to Durand-Fardel, the symptoms of dys-
pepsia are : a digestion always slow, painful, or diffi-
cult, cardialgia, with increased sensibility to press-
ure, a development of gas in the stomach or intes-
tines, constipation and anorexia. These are the
principal symptoms of dyspepsia, and their presence
constitutes its chief characteristic. Though they
may not present themselves as we have given them,
yet they none the less constitute the most marked
features of dyspepsia, and, predominating in most of
the sufferers, they give place to other symptoms,
which in their turn are masked or replaced by a
third series.

Dyspepsia, we must remember, is not alone a
symptom of gastric disorder ; for on the one hand we
have true neurosis, and on the other alterations in
the blood, mingling their symptoms with the more
local ones characteristic of the digestive disorder.
To acknowledge that digestive disorders, be their
cause what it may, produce perversion of the nutri-
tive function, is to admit as a consequence defi-
cient hematose, due to impoverished blood, loss of
strength and of flesh, and the development of a

loo HORSE-BACK RIDING.

cachectic state. Dyspepsia does not always manifest
itself in the same way ; sometimes a severe pain over
the region of the stomach, accompanied by or alter-
nating with others of a like neuralgic character, to
which the name gastralgia is given ; sometimes as a
burning sensation in the stomach, pyrosis ; generally
there is slowness and difficulty of digestion, a ten-
dency to flatulence, nausea, and anorexia. These
are but symptoms of a disordered innervation.

There is a deficiency in both quantity and quality of
the fluids secreted by the gastric mucous membrane,
and the muscles not being sufficiently stimulated re-
main inert.

The first indication to be fulfilled is to restore the
nervous power, or rather to recall the contractility
of the muscular coat of the stomach. Horse-back
riding acts strongly upon the digestive apparatus, both
by the movements of the viscera which it occasions
and the function it produces. It serves as a mechan-
ical excitant to determine energetic contractions of
the muscles of the stomach. From this exercise, the
muscular coat gains strength ; digestion is easier ;
absorption more complete ; nutrition more perfect,
and the nerve regains its power and resumes its func-
tions. Of course this applies especially to that form
of dyspepsia where there is a languid state of the
digestive functions, with muscular atony.

It will not be nearly as efficacious in that form of
dyspepsia where pain is the chief symptom — in true

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 101

neuralgia of the stomach. Here its action will be far
slower, though in the end a cure may follow.

Antyllus had, it seems, a practical knowledge of
the beneficial effects of riding when he said, " Equi-
tatio maxime stomachum firmat."

b. Constipation. — Of all the symptoms of de-
rangement of the digestive organs, the most trouble-
some, and at the same time the most rebellious to
treatment, is constipation. Probably the only remedy
from which we can expect a radical cure is con-
tinued daily exercise, either on foot or on horse-back,
in the open air.

102 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

VI.

HYGIENIC EFFECTS OF HORSE-BACK RIDING.

In an authentic description of the life of Diane de Poitiers, one of
the most remarkable of the royal favorites, we are told that the
" extraordinary and almost fabulous duration of her beauty was in a
great degree due to the precautions which she adopted."

When she entered her fiftieth year, her charms were those of a
woman of twenty-five. To account for a fact so extraordinary, her
enemies invented a story to the effect that she dealt in the black art,
and that she was indebted for her perennial beauty to potions com-
pounded by unholy hands.

But Diane's magic was one which any lady may practice without
endangering her soul : the magic of amiability, regular habits, and,
above all, vigorous exercise.

" She suffered no cosmetic to approach her, denouncing every com-
pound of the kind She arose every morning at six

o'clock, plunged into a cold bath, and had no sooner left her cham-
ber than she sprang into the saddle, and having galloped a league
or two, returned to bed, where she remained until mid-day engaged
in reading."

This system appears a singular one, but in her case undoubtedly
proved most successful.

" Six months before her death," says Brantome, " I saw her so
handsome that no heart of adamant could have been insensible to

her charms She had just been riding on horse-back,

and kept her seat as dexterously and well as she had ever done in
her youth." BRANTOME, Sketch of Diane de Poitiers.

So far we have examined only the physiological
and therapeutical effects of horse-back riding ; now
we are to consider its hygienic uses — that is, we are to
study it not as regards its power to cure or relieve

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 103

already existing ailments, but as to its powers of pre-
vention.

While the value of medicine as an art has often
been disputed, and the question raised whether,
proper allowance being made for the good or evil,
humanity would not fare just as well if left entirely
to nature's resources, the usefulness of hygiene has
never been questioned.* Its rules and principles are
based on experience, its sole aim is the preservation
of health, its basis is admitted and its principles
are respected. It is hygiene which teaches us how
to live fully our life; for it has well been said that
man does not die — he kills himself.

A misanthrope, analyzing human life, finds it to be
composed of three years of happiness, diluted with
sixty or eighty of pain, trouble, and ennui. Yet in
spite of the bitterness of the draught, how we dread
that supreme moment when the cup is to be taken
from our lips !

It is generally thought that in the early ages of the
world, the earth, younger and more prolific in the
principles of life, produced stronger men than those
of the present day. Imagination, which delights in
the wonderful, implicitly believes all that tradition
hands down relating to the patriarchs of the Bible,
whose lives extended through several centuries. Mod-
ern science, after proving that the chronology of those
remote ages was very different from ours, has rectified
this mistake.

104 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

Henser and other authors have proved that the
year consisted of three months only, before the time
of Abraham ; after this patriarch it was composed of
eight months, and that it was not until after the time
of Joseph, the minister of Pharaoh, that it had in-
creased to twelve months.

King David says, " The days of our years are three-
score years and ten ; and if -by reason of strength
they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor
and sorrow ; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away."
(Psalm xc., verse 10.)

Modern statistics show that the average length of
life for some centuries past is gradually increasing ;
thus, for example, that the average life, which was
24 years and 4 months in the seventeenth century,
and which increased to 30 years and 8 months in the
eighteenth century, is now 38 years and 9 months.

In the seventeenth century, half the new-born gen-
eration died before the age of 12 years, three fourths
did not live to the age of 47, and four fifths died at
the age of 55 years. In the eighteenth century, the
increase is remarkable. At last in the nineteenth
century,- the half of the newly-born generation lived
to the age of 38 years, a fourth part reached the age
of 68 years, and a fifth extended beyond the age of 71
years. The probable life from the time of birth has
increased more than threefold since the seventeenth
century.

It has been the object of research from the remot-

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 105

est ages to decide the duration and natural limits of
human life. Among modern theories, we have first
that of Schubert, which has for its basis the revo-
lution of the earth. He maintains that the human
life ought to be jo-fa years, because it should have
as many days as the precession of the equinoxes
(founded on a particular movement of the axis of the
earth) includes years — that is to say, 25,920.'

Buffon, supported by a physiological idea, has estab-
lished as a principle that the entire duration of life
can be measured in some manner by that of the time
of its growth. But this great naturalist missed an
essential point in the solution of this problem : he
did not know the precise sign which decides the time
of growth.

Flourens has found this sign in the reunion of the
bones to their epiphysis. It is at the time when the
bones are consolidated to their epiphysis that animals
cease to grow. This reunion takes place generally in
man at the age of 20 ; in the horse at 5 years ; in the
lion at 4, and in the dog at 2 years. Now the horse
lives to the age of 25 years, the lion to 20, and the
dog to 10 and 12, which makes it nearly five times
the length of the growth. Thus the life of man,
regular and free from accidents, ought to last a cen-
tury at least.

Flourens, in extending thus the length of life, must
be adopting an unusual classification of its different
periods. According to him — and his doctrine is the

ic6 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

result of long observation — the ages are divided into
four series : First infancy, from birth to the age of
10 years ; second infancy, or adolescence, from 10 to
20 years. First youth, from 20 to 30 years ; second
youth, from 30 to 40. First manhood, from 40 to 55
years ; second manhood, from 55 to 70. First old
age, from 70 to 85 ; second old age, from 85 to
death.

Flourens prolongs the period of adolescence to 20
years, because at that time the development of the
bones is completed, and, as a natural consequence,
the growth of the body in length. If he extends
youth to 40 years, it is because at that age the body
attains its final size, whatever it gains afterwards
being only an accumulation of fat. Then if he pro-
longs manhood to 70 years, it is because he perceives
a work of invigoration, which renders every part of
the body stronger and more complete — which work
begins at 40 to 55 years, and continues nearly to the
age of 70.

Old age then commences. According to this
author, its characteristic is the loss of strength in
reserve ; there remains for the old man the active
power only, that of the moment.

Two celebrated physiologists, Haller and Hufeland,
had already, prior to the researches of Flourens,
opened a vast perspective to this desire for longevity,
which is one of the weaknesses of mankind. Haller
sought to estimate the natural length of human life,

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 107

and, supporting his theory on historical evidence, he
placed it between 90 and 100 years.

Hufeland, more recently, following a different
order of ideas, arrived at conclusions almost identical
with those of Flourens.

Leaving this digression, for which we ask pardon
of the reader, let us briefly show the influence horse-
back riding may have on the prolongation of our ex-
istence.

Whatever the average duration of life may be, the
fact remains that most men die from disease ; few if
any from old age. Now as then the statements,
4 ' Non accepimus brevem vitam sed facimus ' ' (Seneca)
and " Inaction weakens the body, exercise fortifies it ;
the first brings on premature old age, the second
prolongs adolescence," are true.

An examination of the physical structure of the
body, its admirable mechanism, the flexibility of its
articulations, and of the quickness and strength which
exercise gives, leads us to conclude that it was not
made for inaction. Frederick the Great's saying that
" When I look closely at our physical structure, I am
almost tempted to believe that nature intended us
for postilions rather than for men of erudition," may
not be so very wrong after all.

We trust, then, that we will no longer be accused
of riding a hobby when we advocate with what
strength we can the claims of an agent which at the
very least exercises a conservative influence upon the

108 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

organism, if it does not restore to a sickly one its
normal vigor, and which must be therefore regarded
as a hygienic remedy of the greatest importance.

All good things, as we know, when abused may
become active agents of evil, and the best remedy
when given at the wrong time, or without proper
regard to the dose, age, temperament, or idiosyncrasy,
may be the cause of grave trouble, and this is the
case with horse-back riding. Wisely directed, it is
an excellent means of cure ; wrongly employed or
abused, it may prove a cause of disease. By abuse I
do not mean only a too prolonged but too violent
exercise, as when there is too great a disproportion
between the action of the horse and the strength of
the rider.

Horse-back riding is injurious in all acute diseases,
even where the weakness of some organs would seem
to call for its strengthening influence. Want of
strength in the rider, the effect of the agitation he
must undergo, and the increased local irritation and
general excitation that it would produce, all forbid
its use.

In the chronic phlegmasia so often occurring in the
pulmonary system, it should be absolutely prohibited,
as the already existing oppression would be increased
by it, unless the sufferer be willing to walk his horse.
In that case, since an opportunity of breathing fresh
air without fatigue or excitement would be afforded,
the result could be but beneficial.

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 109

Sometimes haemoptysis has been produced by rid-
ing rapidly against a strong wind. There must have
existed a morbid predisposition of the system.

Many authors, as Ramazzini, Cabanis, Loude, etc.,
state that an excessive indulgence in horse-back
exercise produces aneurism of the aorta, and it is gen-
erally acknowledged that horse-back riding is a very
frequent cause of hernia. The continued pressure
upon the intestines made by the diaphragm and
intestinal walls, draws back the parts which form the
ring, and this continuous pulling will in time so far
relax it as to render a hernia a very possible effect.

Urethritis is said to have been caused by riding ;
as it would be benign, rest for a short time would
prove the remedy.

Horse-back riding is of course contraindicated. in
diseases of the urinary organs and in sufferers from
hemorrhoids. The results of inquiries lead me to
conclude that hemorrhoids only are developed from
horse-back riding in those who make this exercise a
profession.

If we examine carefully as to the health of those
leading a sedentary life, we will find that a greater
portion of the affections to which they are subject
results generally from lack of proper exercise in youth,
thus preventing complete physical development, both
as regards the form of the body and the functions of
its organs. The impoverishment of the blood may
be so complete as to destroy life, or only partial, and

no HORSE-BACK RIDING.

thus entailing a long chain of diseases ; or the lack
of exercise may be during adult life. In this case
the inherent force or vitality of the individual may
for a long time overcome all injurious influences,
but sooner or later we see morbid phenomena show
themselves, without being able to trace out their
cause, or state the exact time at which they began.

One of the natural results of exercise, and one
whose influence is of not less importance than the
physical improvement, is that the regular and per-
sistent application of the will to the overcoming of
the want of energy and bodily laziness gives the
moral and mental control of the physical nature, and
leads, therefore, to an increase of the force of will and
action in general, to greater firmness of character and
strength to bear the adversities of life, and develops a
persevering power of resistance against that tendency
to yield to disease which so often in chronic cases is
a worse enemy than the disease itself.

Exercise maintains not alone the bodily health, but
also strengthens and invigorates the mind. "All the
forces of the soul are increased and revivified by ex-
ercise," says Galen, and " native heat is maintained
within the limits of health by moderate exercise of
the body and mind."

In every situation of life, in health or disease, the
physical is always more or less influenced by the
mental condition, and vice versd. Who has not en-
joyed that feeling of thorough well-being on occa-

HORSE-BACK RIDING. Ill

sions of great joy? Who is it whose digestion is not
better when all his thoughts are pleasant and joyful ?
And if I am asked why I select horse-back riding in
preference to any other form of exercise, or why it
influences the mental and moral nature to a greater
extent than any other, I answer readily because it
pleases more. Man (and I include here the best half of
mankind) grows all the fonder of horse-back riding
from practice ; he is happy while riding, for there is
neither room nor time for sad thoughts. For the
majority of women it is more than a mere pleasure-
party ; it is an occasion for a special toilet which is
becoming to almost all.

ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF HORSE-RACES.

HORSE-BA CK RIDING. 11$

ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF HORSE-RACES.

THE Curetes, or Dactyli, the five brothers to whom
Rhea had intrusted the education of Jupiter, having
completed their allotted task, departed from Mt. Ida,
and went to Elis.

" One day, the eldest brother, Hercules, in order
to relieve the tedium of their new condition, proposed
that they should run a race, and offered as a prize to
the successful contestant a crown of olive." (Me-
moires de 1'Abbe Gedoyn.)

According to the legend this sportive contest was
the origin of those games which in succeeding ages
gained such celebrity, and for which the Greeks,
especially, ever manifested the most enthusiastic
fondness.

Undoubtedly the first races were simply foot-
races. The horse roamed his native wilds a magnifi-
cent but savage creature, for the art of training his
fierceness and rendering him subservient to the use
of mankind had not yet been discovered. Neces-
sity, the mother of invention, was still to make
known to the people of those early times the advan-

1 1 6 HORSE-BA CK RIDING.

tages of domesticating an animal so absolutely essen-
tial to our modern civilization.

Each father of a family lived on the spot where he
was born, occupying himself solely in cultivating his
ancestral heritage ; the earth was tilled by the aid of
" the patient ox," and the ass was the sole beast of
burden employed ; for, capable of enduring the
greatest hardships and requiring but the scantiest
fare, this animal, despicable in our eyes, was then
held in high esteem. No one, whatever his condi-
tion, whether chieftain or servitor, ever dreamed of
wishing for a better or more honorable animal for
riding. Luxury and refinement had not then created
in man an infinitude of imaginary desires ; natural
wants were the only ones he troubled himself to
satisfy.

This condition of primitive simplicity, however,
was destined to form no exception to the inexorable
law of change stamped on all human affairs ; an
alteration in manners soon took place, and different
manners introduced different usages.

Fifty years after the deluge of Deucalion, which
in the time of Moses inundated Greece, Clymenus, one
of the descendants of the Idean Hercules, emigrated
from Crete into Elis, reigned there, and celebrated
games at Olympia. Then Endymion, son of ;£th-
lius, drove Clymenus from Elis, and usurped the
throne ; but wearying speedily of power so easily
gained, he offered the kingdom to his own children,

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 117

as a prize in similar exercises. These races, like the
earliest, were both foot-races. It was not until some
time after this, that Bellerophon, the young hero,
impregnable in courage and virtue, appeared in
Greece, discovered the art of taming the steed after-
wards famous in legend and story under the name of
Pegasus, and employed it in his triumphant combat
with the Chimaera.

Now, as Bellerophon, son of Glaucus and grandson
of Sisyphus, was the sixth in direct descent from
Deucalion, and lived during the time that Ehud
judged Israel, we must infer that the equestrian art
began to be practised in Greece about 2650 A.M.,
thirteen or fourteen centuries before the Christian
era. In Egypt, on the contrary, the horse had long
been a domestic animal. Pharaoh, who, while pur-
suing the Israelites, was engulfed in the Red Sea,
had with him, according to the Sacred Word, besides
" horsemen, six hundred chosen chariots, and all the
chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of
them." The Israelites, therefore, could not have
been ignorant of the uses of the horse, although they
themselves probably employed it only to a limited
extent. "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's
house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor
his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox,
nor his ass," says Moses in the Decalogue ~; he does
not mention the horse, for the simple reason, un-
doubtedly, that it was not yet in common use. In

n8 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

the first chapter of the Book of Job, we read also
that this faithful servant of God was the owner of
" seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five
hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she-asses;"
but hearing nothing of horses, we infer accordingly
that throughout the East they were employed very
little, if at all. But to return to Bellerophon. His
encounter with the Chimaera took place in Lycia,
whither he had been sent by Prcetus, with the design
of causing his death ; and the fame of his adventures
being quickly diffused in all the adjacent regions, im-
mediately there sprang up among the princes and
heroes of Greece an eager rivalry in regard to horses,
each endeavoring to become the possessor and raiser
of as large a number as possible. Many a city grew
into wealth and renown through this new object of
interest, but from their manifest superiority, the
breeding horses of Epirus, Argos, and Mycenae soon
bore away the palm from all competitors. The
Thessalians, a tribe settled both in Greece and Mace-
donia, acquired at this period an enviable reputation
as equestrians ; mounted on perfectly tamed steeds,
they fearlessly encountered wild bulls, from which
circumstance they derived their name of Centaurs.

The Lapithae, another people of Thessaly, ex-
celled not only in manufacture of beautiful saddles
and every variety of caparison, but in the more diffi-
cult art of training and managing horses.

Thirty years after Endymion, Pelops celebrated

HORSE-BA CK RIDING. 1 1 9

games at Olympus, in honor of Jupiter, with more
pomp and splendor, according to Pausanias, than any
of his predecessors. This prince had just gained a
signal triumph over CEnomaus in that renowned
chariot race in which the reward of victory was no
more insignificant prize than the sovereignty of Pisa
and the hand of Hippodamia, the most beautiful
princess of the age ; we can readily believe, there-
fore, that horse and chariot as well as foot races were
a prominent feature in the games of Pelops. Still,
until a period long subsequent to this, horses were a
rare and valuable possession, a fact which explains
the fables so numerous in the ancient mythologies.
Poets wove into song and story how ' ' the father of
gods and king of men," having spirited away the
beauteous Ganymede, gave to Zeus, the father of the
youthful cupbearer, in order to console him for the
loss of his son, horses of marvellous qualities ; how
Neptune sent as a gift to Copreus, King of Haliar-
tus, in Bceotia, the famous charger Areion, endowed
with a human voice and the gift of prophecy ; how,
at the marriage of the heaven-born Thetis with
Peleus, child of earth, the gods who had honored
the nuptials with their presence, wishing to testify
their liberality and good-will, Neptune gave as his
contribution to the marriage portion two magnificent
horses ; and how, at the games of Patroclus, Mene-
laus ^harnessed his horse, Podarge, with Agamem-
non's mare, the superb ^thea, which derived her

120 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

origin from the divine steeds, presented to Zeus by
Jupiter himself.

Such legends are incontrovertible evidence that in
those days a fine horse was something extraordinary
and of almost priceless value.

Chariots were introduced into Greece at nearly the
same epoch as horses. Cicero, with due respect for
immortal powers, attributes their invention to Mi-
nerva, ^schylus to Prometheus, Theon, the scholi-
ast of Aratus, to a certain Trochilus ; but common
opinion, which Virgil follows, assigns the honor to
Eruthonius. After Pelops, Amythaon, son of Cre-
theus, and cousin-german of Endymion, again af-
forded to the Greeks the pleasing and ever-welcome
spectacle of Olympic games. After him, Pelias and
Meleus celebrated them at their joint expense; then
Augeas, and finally Hercules, son of Amphitryon,
when he had completed the conquest of Elis. We
cannot doubt that at all these celebrations, horse and
chariot races bore a prominent part, especially at the
last, where we are told that Janus, the Arcadian,
gained the prize for horse-racing, and lolaus, the
voluntary companion of the labors of Hercules, car-
ried off the chariot prize, ard was crowned by the
hand of Hercules himself, whose mares he had bor-
rowed for the occasion.

According to Pausanias, it was a convenient
fashion of those days to borrow horses that had ac-
quired a reputation for extraordinary swiftness.

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 12 1

After the time of Pelops, who was contemporary with
Bellerophon, it became customary for each king to
celebrate his accession with games ; and horse and
chariot races never failed to form part of the spectacle.

Fifty years prior to the siege of Troy, Nestor had
disputed the prize in a chariot race with the son
of Actor, and about fifty years still earlier, at the
obsequies of Azan, son of Areas, Etolus, giving
free rein to his flying horses, had overthrown Apis,
who died from the effects of the injuries thus re-
ceived. It is evident, therefore, that races of various
kinds formed part of the funeral ceremonies from the
very earliest period of their introduction ; for Etolus
was contemporary with Bellerophon, from whose
epoch dates the use of horses among the Greeks.

Four hundred years after the conquest of Troy,
according to Father Peton, and twenty-three years
after the founding of Rome, Iphitus, a descendant of
Oxylus, on the authority of the Delphic Oracle, re-
established the Olympic games. It was then, indeed,
that these games first assumed fixed forms and were
regulated by judicious laws, and that their celebra-
tion having become exactly periodical, the Greeks
began to compute time by Olympiads.

But after such a long discontinuance, says Pausa-
nias, the different exercises which had formerly been
practised sank into almost entire oblivion, and it
was only gradually that each was recalled to memory
and restored to its place on the list of national games.

122 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

Foot-racing, the most ancient and natural of sports,
was first re-established ; but soon boxing, the pen-
tathlon, the cestus, the poncratium, and particularly
horse and chariot races had again resumed their
former prestige.

There were three principal classes of horse-races,
the first two differing chiefly in the kind of animal
employed — one being run with saddle horses, the
other with colts. The first ode of Pindar sings the
praises of Hiero, King of Syracuse, who was victor
in a contest of saddle horses ; and in the I28th
Olympiad, when the second form of racing was insti-
tuted or re-established, Hepolemus of Lycia carried
off the prize. A third kind, called the calpe, con-
sisted in running with two mares. The contestant
mounted one and led the other by the bridle, and
just before reaching the end of the course, leaped to
the ground, and finished the race by leading both
animals to the goal. These three modes of racing
had many points of resemblance, however, as well as
difference. They were all run without stirrups, the
invention of which dates long after this period ; to
all, children were admitted as contestants on the same
conditions as men, and, finally, it was necessary in all
for the riders, before finishing the course, to make the
circuit of a goal, set up in a place so cramped and
narrow that whoever, in any degree, lacked skill and
address, ran great risk of falling from his horse and
losing the victory.

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 123

" I formerly believed," says the Abbe Gidoyn,
" that it was obligatory only in chariot races to pass
round the goal ; but the following passage from
Pausanias undeceived me : ' The mare of Phidolos of
Corinth/ says he, ' well deserves that I should call
attention to her merits. The Corinthians name her
Aura. Her master having fallen at the very begin-
ning of the race, not for an instant did she slacken
her speed, but running on with the same care and
judgment as if she still felt his guiding hand, she
made the circuit of the goal, redoubled her efforts at
the sound of the trumpet, and at last, conscious of
having gained the victory and merited the reward,
stopped in front of the judges' stand. Phidolos was
proclaimed victor, and obtained from the Eleans the
privilege of erecting a monument on which himself
and his mare were represented." From this passage
we learn that towards the end of a race a flourish of
trumpets animated the combatants to renewed efforts,
and we must also conclude that the horse and chariot
races were run in different inclosures. A horse would
find no difficulty in turning where for a chariot to
turn would be an utter impossibility ; consequently
the same goal would not have answered for both.
The Stadium, a space of about six hundred English
feet, was the scene of the foot-races, the Hippo-
drome of the horse-races ; and there was also a
special place assigned to the contesting chariots.
The Hippodrome must have been longer than the

124 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

Stadium, for it would have been manifest injustice to
subject men and horses to the same test, and, more-
over, Pausanias positively asserts that the Hippo-
drome was twice the length of the Stadium.

But let us proceed to consider more in detail the
subject of chariot races.

The Greeks denoted a chariot by the word Jianna,
which is almost the only expression employed by
Pausanias. Hence we conclude that solely one spe-
cies of chariot was used in these games, and that
any difference consisted rather in the animals at-
tached to the vehicles, and in the manner of attach-
ing them, than in the vehicles themselves.

The chariots of the Greeks were more or less orna-
mented according to the rank and wealth of their
owners. Homer relates that Diomedes appeared at
the obsequies of Patroclus in a car resplendent with
gold and metal ornaments. That of Menelaus was
equally superb, and many others rivalled them in the
magnificence of their decorations. If in this simple
and primitive age, and in time of war, the Greeks
already lavished such ornamentation on their chariots,
what idea must we conceive of those sent to the
Olympic games, the solemn and magnificent spec-
tacles that every fifth year summoned all Greece to
the sacred spot of their celebration, and at which
kings and princes of world-wide fame, such as Hiero,
Gelon, and Philip of Macedon contested the prize,

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 125

either in person or by proxy, in the persons of their
equerries.

We can readily believe that on such occasions the
creative genius and the love of beauty inherent in
the Grecian mind would be displayed to the fullest
extent, even in a matter apparently so unimportant
as the decoration of a chariot.

Diversity of ornament, nevertheless, does not
necessarily imply any noticeable diversity of con-
struction ; but great variety was gained, and games
and contests were multiplied according as the cars
were drawn by two horses or four, by young horses
or those over five years of age, by colts or mules. A
car to which two horses were yoked was termed in
Latin biga, in Greek sunoria or sunoris, an expres-
sion which Plato happily uses to signify the union
subsisting between one soul and body. Racing be-
tween chariots drawn by two horses of five years was
made a prominent feature of the Olympic games in
the 93d Olympiad.

At the period of the Trojan war the Greeks fre-
quently attached three horses to a chariot ; but this
practice was never introduced into any of the naiional
games.

Four horses, however, were often yoked to a
chariot, and were called tethrippos, tctroris, and
tetroria — in Latin, quadriga.

This kind of race was the most honorable and
beautiful of all, and was either instituted or renewed

126 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

at no later period than the 25th Olympiad, remark-
able for the victory of the Theban Pagondas. The
Greeks never drove four .horses in the modern
fashion, two and two, but all abreast. The middle
horses, called jugales, were usually those esteemed
the poorest ; the best, styled funales or lorarii, were
placed outside, and special care was taken that the
horse on the left should be one thoroughly trained.
To a certain extent, this horse directed the move-
ments of the others, as it was necessary to turn to
the left in making the circuit of the goal.

Nestor, exhorting his son, Antilochus, to make
every effort to obtain the prize offered by Achilles,
addressed him thus : " Approach as near as possible
to the goal ; to obtain this result, leaning forward on
your chariot, gain the left of your rivals, and inciting
the horse beyond your hand, give him loosened reins,
while the horse under your hand will pass so close to
the goal that it will seem as if the nave of your
wheel grazed it in doubling."

The place of meeting for both horses and cha-
riots, which the Latins called carccrcs, was an ex-
tensive inclosure immediately in front of the race-
course.

The race-course had also its separate inclosure, de-
noted in Greek by the word balbis or usplegx, in
Latin by claustrum or repagulum. Pausanias de-
scribes the whole portion of ground allotted to the
games, with all its different divisions, as follows ;

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 127

" Beyond that part of the Stadium where the direct-
ors of the games sit is the space assigned to the
horse-racers ; in front of this is a large field, marked
off in the shape of a ship's prow, and in such a man-
ner that the back is turned towards the lists. At the
spot where the field adjoins the Portico of the
Agnaptus it gradually widens on both sides, and at
the extremity of the beak, and raised to a great
height, is a bronze dolphin, supported on a column
of iron.

"The field is more than 800 feet in circumference,
and along its sides stalls have been built for the ac-
commodation of horses and chariots, and these stalls
are divided by lot among the combatants. In front
of each row of stalls, from one extremity of the field
to the other, extends a thick rope which serves as a
barrier to keep the horses and chariots in their re-
spective places until the proper moment.

"Near the centre of the prow-like field stands an
altar of unbaked brick, which before each Olympi-
ad is carefully washed and whitened, and over it a
bronze eagle stretches its widely-expanded wings.

"By means of machinery this eagle is suddenly
elevated and rendered visible to all the spectators,
while at the same instant the dolphin at the end of
the inclosure is lowered to the earth.

"At this signal the ropes drop, and immediately the
combatants advance from every side and meet around
the dolphin. Here they are carefully paired and

128 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

matched, and now they ride into the lists, where
the address of the charioteers and the swiftness of
the horses decide the victory. "

Such is the idea we gather of the Olympian ren-
dezvous from the pages of Pausanias. He mentions
only stalls or coach-houses for the horses and char-
iots, but there is ground for believing that these
structures were arched and consisted of more than
one story, in order to furnish apartments for the use
of the participants of the games.

It is probable, too, that, occupying a site so fre-
quented and celebrated, where the exhibition of any
thing like extraordinary skill would confer corre-
sponding honor upon the architect, they abounded in
decoration and ornament.

Still following the authority of Pausanias, we find
that the race-course for chariots consisted of two
divisions — the longer of the two being an artificial
terrace, the other an elevation of moderate height ;
but he furnishes no statistics concerning the length
and breadth of the inclosure, though it could not
have been less than several hundred feet.

One author has been guilty of a fault common to
historians, viz., that of thinking only of the times in
which they write, and forgetting that the human in-
stitutions they are describing are not perpetual, but
as perishable as men themselves. " Debemur morti
nos nostraque. "

These games, therefore, consecrated by religion,

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 129

and forming not the amusement but the delight and
dominant passion, or, to speak more truly, the serious
occupation of a whole nation, and that nation the most
renowned and polished the world could then boast,
have experienced the same unhappy fate as the people
among whom they originated and perished with them.

Thus, through the negligence of historians, whose
duty it was to chronicle the institutions of their
country, we have no adequate record of these spec-
tacles, but are able to form only a confused idea of
them, founded in many respects on pure conjecture.
In regard to the goals, we are no more accurately in-
formed. Pausanias makes a mere passing allusion to
them in the following passage : " At one of these
goals we see a statue of Hippodamia, holding a rib-
bon in her hand, as if about to crown Pelops, already
sure of victory;" but these words, ''one of the
goals," are sufficient to prove that there must have
been several. Common-sense, indeed, teaches us
that at least three were necessary : one for horses,
another for two-horse chariots, and a third for cars
drawn by four horses.

Now, imagine this multitude of horses and char-
iots all assembled at the gathering-place, for the
purpose of affording Greece a spectacle worthy of
herself. The combatants are prepared, and the
horses, only waiting the signal to fly at lightning
speed into the lists, testify their ardor and impatience
by the restlessness of their movements. We compre-

130 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

hend very easily that contests like these could not
fail to be exceedingly perilous. Sometimes a horse
would stumble, and the light chariot receive a shock
sufficient to shake the charioteer from his position,
which was generally a standing one ; sometimes the
four horses, impelled to their utmost speed, and be-
coming excited beyond all control, would seize the
bits -between their teeth, and gallop madly over the
course, dragging their luckless master helplessly
along. " Fertur equis auriga neque audit curius
habenas." Again, an axletree would break, and the
driver, falling to the ground, was fortunate indeed if
he escaped being trampled beneath the hoofs of the
flying coursers. Homer and the Greek tragedians
furnish us many examples of such accidents.

But even more perilous was the encounter of one
chariot with another, in the endeavor to gain the
slightest advantage ; for naturally each charioteer,
regardless, in his excitement, of the probable conse-
quences to himself, did all in his power to hinder or
overturn his rival.

The space, too, in which they contended was by
no means very extensive ; and being compelled to
follow almost the same path, in order to attain the
goal, the highest degree of skill and dexterity could
hardly suffice to prevent casualties of the most,
serious nature. As it was a point of honor to make
the nearest possible approach to the goal, here was
another source of danger ; and Nestor, in his counsel

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 131

to his son, part of which we have already quoted,
concludes his advice by bidding him beware of strik-
ing the stone that served as a goal, lest he should
wound his horses and shatter his chariot to frag-
ments.

As the peril increased towards the end of the
course, it was then a loud flourish of trumpets was
played, animating men and horses to renewed
efforts. Dexterity, however, was more necessary
than swiftness, for frequently the horses, being
pushed beyond their strength, lost their wind and
failed to double the goal. Hence the comparison
which Cicero employs in the fourth book of his
"Academical Questions," "I shall imitate the ex-
ample of a wise charioteer, and spare my horses in
order to be able to finish my course." Callisthenes,
in a fragment still extant, relates that Alexander in
his early youth contested the prize in a chariot race
at the Olympic games, and obtained the victory by
his prudence and discretion. The majority of his
rivals had passed him, but some, rendering their
horses useless by injudicious haste, were unable to
advance further ; while others, in their ardor and im-
petuosity, came into collision and dashed their char-
iots to pieces. A certain Nicolaus alone retained
for a brief space the advantage he had gained ; but
Alexander, foreseeing that, in his excessive eagerness,
he would eventually meet the same fate as the others,
did not allow himself to become disquieted ; and

I32 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

soon Nicolaus, rushing against the ruins of a chariot
that obstructed the path, fell with his horses, and
left Alexander sole competitor for the prize.

He gained the goal, doubled it, finished the race,
and presented himself as victor before • one of the
Hellanodices, who, as he placed the crown upon the
youth's head, uttered these memorable words : " Be-
lieve me, Alexander, just as you have won the vic-
tory in this race, so you shall win many another one
in war' ' — words which filled the breast of the young
hero with noble joy, and perhaps first awakened in
his soul the desire to embark in the grand enterprises
that in all succeeding ages have astonished the uni-
verse.

It is manifest, then, that the goal was a place of
extreme danger, where many an unhappy combatant
met with misfortune and lost his hope of victory ;
and equally manifest that, notwithstanding the dan-
ger, it was necessary, in order to win the crown, to
reach the goal first and double it successfully, prob-
ably more than once ; indeed, in the opinion of
several authors, the whole circuit of the Stadium was
made twelve times in each race.

And now the question arises, did the women who
gained the prize in chariot races at Olympus com-
pete in person or by proxy ? Pausanias informs
us in one place that any woman detected in the
act of viewing these games, or who should even have
passed the Alpheus during the time of their celebra-

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 133

tion, would have been pitilessly hurled from the
summit of Mt. Typens ; and, on the other hand, he
mentions three women who had won renown through
their success at chariot races, viz., Cynisca, daughter
of Archidamus, King of Sparta, and sister of the
great Agesilaus ; Euryleonis, another woman of
Sparta, and the Macedonian, Bellistria.

Again he asserts that Chamyne, the priestess of
Ceres, and other virgins had their appointed places
in the lists of Olympia, from which conflicting ac-
counts we may infer that if women were forbidden by
law to witness the exercises of the pancratium and
pentathlon, on account of the indecency of these
contests, there was certainly no cause to prevent
them from being spectators or even participants in
horse and chariot races, where all was noble — where
there was nothing calculated to call the faintest blush
to the cheek of modesty.

It seems more than probable, however, that women
did not enter the lists of Olympus in person, but
merely sent thither their horses and chariots with a
substitute.

The manners and customs of Greece did not favor
the presence of women in public, much less their be-
coming a spectacle for the amusement of the popu-
lace. It was not even necessary that men, in order to
gain the victory, should drive their own chariots or
ride their own horses over the race-course any more
than at the present day. The horses won the crown

134 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

of olives and their masters wore it. Philip of Mace-
don was proclaimed victor at the Olympic game at
the very time he was besieging Potidaea. Plutarch
relates that this prince, favored of fortune, received
on the same day three pieces of intelligence each
more joyful than the last : first, that a son had been
born to him ; secondly, that his general, Parmenio,
had defeated the Illyrians ; and, thirdly, that he had
won a crown of olive at Olympus.

And now it remains to say a word or two concern-
ing this recompense, that, despite its apparent insig-
nificance, was deemed a fitting reward for the most
marvellous achievements in contests so perilous.

And to begin with, we must admit that he who
first said, " Opinion governs the world," spoke not
without reason. Who could believe, were not the
fact too well attested for doubt, that in the hope of
being privileged to wear a wreath of olive leaves, a
whole nation would devote itself to the practice of
exercises in the highest degree painful and hazard-
ous ? But, on the other hand, the Greeks, by a wise
policy, had attached such honor and distinction to
the obtaining of this crown, that it is not surprising a
people whose ruling passion was the love of glory
believed they could not pay too dearly for this which
of all honors was the most flattering.

It is no exaggeration when Cicero declares in his
Epistles from Tusculum, that, in the estimation of the
Greeks, this olive crown was equal in value to a con-

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 13$

sulship ; and in his oration from Floccus, that to gain
the victory at Olympus conferred greater glory upon
a Greek than the honor of a triumph upon a Roman.

The successful contestant was proclaimed victor by
a public herald and the sound of the trumpet. Not
only was his own name mentioned, but that of his
father, of the city that gave him birth, and some-
times even of his tribe. He was crowned by the
hand of one of the Hellanodices, and conducted in
pomp to Prytaneus, where a public and sumptuous
banquet awaited him. When he afterwards returned
to the city, his fellow-citizens assembled in throngs
to welcome him, and, persuaded that the glory with
which he was crowned rendered their country illus-
trious and reflected its splendor upon themselves,
received him with acclamations and all the magnifi-
cent accomplishments of a triumph.

He never again needed to fear either poverty or
humiliation ; his native state provided for his mainten-
ance, and perpetuated his fame by monuments which
seem to bid defiance to the destroying touch of time ;
and the most celebrated statuaries solicited the priv-
ilege of representing him with the tokens of his vic-
tory, in marble or bronze, in the sacred Grove of
Olympus.

Later on, when Rome had reached the height of
her glory, she had few if any enemies left to contest
with. Fearing, in consequence, a relaxation of the
physical strength of her people, and partly to satisfy

136 HORSE-BACK RIDING.

in a degree the bloodthirsty desires of some of her
emperors, she established the Arenas, where for the
first time were enacted the tragical games of the gladi-
ators.

This barbarous custom, however, seemed to be a
forerunner of the decline of the Roman Empire,
which, through the great energy of her early heroes,
had reigned supreme during five hundred years, en-
lightening the world with the highest order of civil-
ization, and giving birth to such illustrious men as
Scipio, Cincinnatus, Virgil, Cicero, and Caesar.

Passing from this era to the next, that of the
Middle Ages, we find tournaments first mentioned.
They were the grand spectacles of this epoch. The
champions, generally young men of the nobility,
entered the lists, mounted on steeds, encased in
armor, richly caparisoned, and. always surrounded by
a strong body of men-at-arms.

Here they challenged each other to break one or
more lances.

The victor of the contest received not only a
crown of laurel or oak as a reward for his prowess,
but what was, no doubt, more acceptable, the hand
of the fairest and wealthiest chatelaine of the as-
sembly ; hence the saying that these heroes were
" crowned by the hands of the Graces."

Nothing can be more descriptive or thrilling than
an account of these tournaments given by Sir Walter
JBcott, in " Ivanhoe. "

HORSE-BACK RIDING. 137

Now, however, since the human race has become
more polished and the world in general more civil-
ized, these ancient diversions have taken a much
milder form, attended with far less danger, and at the
same time an equal amount of exertion required.

The chariot-races and tournaments of the Middle
Ages have been succeeded by the modern race-
course and the numerous advantages of the manage ;
and it cannot for a moment be doubted that these,
together with tandems and four-in-hand equipages of
to-day, are far preferable to the chariots and tourna-
ments, without the hazardous and sometimes tragical
end attending the ancient games.

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manner.

Shoeing of SADDLE HORSES a Specialty.

PARTICULAR ATTENTION PAID TO LAME AND INTERFERING

HORSES, AND PERFECT SATISFACTION GUARANTEED

IN EVERY RESPECT.

HORSES SENT FOR AND TAKEN HOME,

WITH THE UTMOST CARE.

THE BOOK FOR HORSE BUYERS,

THE ILLUSTRATED

BOOK OF THE HORSE.

Thoroughbred, Half-bred, Cart-bred, Saddle and Harness,
British and Foreign.

WITH HINTS ON HORSEMANSHIP, THE MANAGEMENT OF THE STAIU.E, DREEDING,
BREAKING, AND TRAINING FOR THE KOAL), THE PARK, AND THE FIELD.

By S. SYDNEY, Author of " Gallops and Gossips," etc., etc.

Illustrated -with Twenty-five Fac-simile Colored Plates, from Original Paintings,
and -up-ward of One Hundred Wood Engravings.

Uniform in Size and Style with the " Illustrated Book of Poultry."

CLOTH, EXTRA, . . . $12.50 | HALF MOROCCO, . . . $17.50

CONTENTS.— CHAP. i. Estimates of Annual Expenses of a Carnage and Horses.
— 2. Carriages. — 3. On the Purchase of Horses.— 4. Useful Horses and Ponies.
— 5. Park Hacks, Phaeton Steppers, Carriage Horses. — 6. Oriental Blood
Horses.— 7. The Origin of the Modern British Mare.— 8. History of the Eng-
lish Blood Horse. — 9. The Modern Blood Horse. — 10. Half-bred.— n. Foreign
Horses. — 12. Heavy Draught Horses. — 13. Asses and Mules. — 14. Horseman-
ship, or the Art of " Equitation." — 15. A Lesson on Horsemanship. — 16. Hints
to Amazons. — 17. Hunting.— 18. Hare Hunting, Fox Hunting, Stag Hunting. —
19. Hunters. — 20. Training for Hunting, Riding to Cover.— 21. Preparations of
the Hunter for Treatment in and after Hunting. — 22. Miscellaneous Hints on
Hunting. —23. Harness, Putting in Harness.— 24. Driving. — 25. Stables and
Coach Horses. — 26. Stable Clothing, Fodder, and Work. — 27. Breeding. —
28. Breaking and Training. — 29. Veterinary Information.

" It is the most complete compendium of information upon horses of all coun-
tries and of every breed that has hitherto been given the public." — Spirit of t lie

Times.

SECOND EDITION NOW READY. PRICE, FIFTY CENTS.

BITS AND BEARING-REINS and HORSES AND HARNESS,

By E. F. FLOWER.

With Seven full-page Plates in Lithograph, and Portrait of Mr. Flower.

" Not only may people, by studying it (' Bits and Bearing-Reins '), save their
necks and keep their horses in good condition, but what is really the grievous sin of
cruelty may be corrected." — New York Times.

" An admirable little pamphlet. The condemnation of the bearing-rein is the
principal theme of the work, and. after one perusal of it, any kind-hearted man
would decide to remove them from his stock." — Spirit of the Times.

Sent prepaid on receipt of price.

CASSELL, FETTER & GALPIN,

Send for Catalogue. 596 BROADWAY, NEW YORK.

RETURN PUBLIC HEALTH LIBRARY

TO— ^ 42 Warren Hall 642-2511

LOAN

IOD 1

ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS
ALL JOURNALS ARE NON-RENEWABLE

Return to desk from which borrowed

DUE AS STAMPED BELOW

1986

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
FORM NO. DD26-7, 9m. 1 1 778 BERKELEY, CA 94720