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THEODORE A. DODGE. 11. S. ARMY

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THE CAMPAIGN OF CHANCELLORSVILLE.

It is not easy to say which part of this book is best, for it is all
good. — The Nation.

We do not hesitate to pronounce it one of the ablest, fairest, and
most valuable books that we have seen. — Southern Historical
Papers.

A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF OUR CIVIL WAR

Is all that could be desired : gives perhaps a clearer, more vivid view,
a more accurate outline than any other available record. — Lotidon
Saturday Review.

The material of the work well serves to consolidate and orient the
knowledge of what was done in the Great Rebellion and of those who
did it. — Journal Military Service Institution.

We do not hesitate to commend the book most warmly as the work
of an able, painstaking soldier, who has honestly endeavored to as-
certain and frankly to tell the truth about the war. — Soutliern His-
torical Papers.

The book is written in a spirit of impartiality and of just discrimi-
nation concerning the merits and defects of the generals who led the
armies of the North and South. — A rmy and Navy Journal.

HEATH HILL,
ROOKLi NE,

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PATROCLUS AND PENELOPE

cyf Chat in the Saddle

THEODORE AYRAULT DODGE

BREVET LIEUTENANT-COLONEL UNITED STATES ARMY, RETIRED LIST; AUTHOR OF

" THE CAMPAIGN OF CHANCELLORSVILLE," " A BIRD's-EYK VIEW

OF OUR CIVIL WAR," BTC, ETC.

BOSTON

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY

New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street

(Cfw C!iberjSiOe ^xtii, <(ram6ritige
i88s

Copyright, i88s.
By THEODORE AYRAULT DODGE.

All rights reserved.

The Riverside Press, Cambridge :
Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton and Company.

To
THE COUNTRY CLUB OF BOSTON,

WHICH HAS FOSTERED A TRUE APPRSaATION

OK GOOD HORSEMANSHIP IN OUR CITY OF BEAUTIFUL ENVIRONMENTS,

AND WHOSE GENEROUS AND ABLE ADMINISTRATION

HAS AFFORDED THE LOVERS OF THE SADDLE

SO MANY OCCASIONS OF RARE ENTERTAINMENT,

8Ef)ese ^Pages are InsctibtS

BY

A MEMBER.

Since — as it has been our fortune to be long engaged about horses —
we consider that we have acquired some knowledge of horsemanship, we
desire also to intimate to the younger part of our friends how we think
that thej> may bestow their attention on horses to the best advantage.

Xenophon on Horsemanship, I. i.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

1. Patrocuis Frontispiece.

2. A Quiet Amble 12

3. The Rack or Running Walk 24

4. A Sharp Single-Foot 36

5. An Easy Canter 48

6. A Ten-Mile Trot 60

7. Rising to a Hurdle 72

8. Flying a Hurdle 84

9. Clean above it 96

10. Taking off at Water 108

11. Doing it Handily 120

12. A Twenty-Foot Jump 132

13. About to Land i44

14. Landing 156

BEFORE MOUNTING.

But a few months since, the author, whose
thirty odd years in the saddle in many parts of
the world have, he trusts, taught him that mod-
esty which should always be bred of usage, was
showing some of the instantaneous photographs
of his horse Patroclus to a group of Club men.
Most of the gentlemen were old friends, but one
of the photographs having been passed to a by-
stander, whose attire marked him as belonging to
the most recently developed Boston type of horse-
men, elicited, much to his listeners' entertain-
ment, the remark that " naw man can wide in a
saddle like that, ye know, not weally wide, ye
know ! naw fawin, ye know ! would n't be tole-
wated in our school, ye know ! " The author was
informed by a mutual acquaintance that the gen-
tleman was taking a course of lessons at the
swellest riding academy of the city, and had re-
cently imported an English gelding. In defer-
ence to such excellent authority, whose not un-
kindly meant, if somewhat brusquely uttered,

lo " Faw^nr

criticism may be said to have inspired these
pages, otherwise perhaps without a suitable motif,
an explanation appears to be called for, lest by
some other youthful equestrian critics the physi-
cian be advised to heal himself.

The exclusive use of the English hunting-rig
and crop for all kinds and conditions of men at
all times and in all places is well understood by
old horsemen to be but a matter of fashion which
time may displace in favor of some other novelty.
For their proper purpose they are undeniably the
best. But to the newly fledged equestrian who
makes them his shibboleth, and who discards as
" bad form " any variation upon the road from
what is eminently in place after hounds, the au-
thor, with an admiration for the excellencies of
the English seat derived from half a dozen years'
residence in the Old Country and many a sharp
run in the flying-counties, and with the conscious-
ness that, if tried in the balance of to-day's An-
glomania, his own seat, as shown in some of the
illustrations, may chance to be found wanting, de-
sires to explain that, during the Civil War, out-
rageous fortune, among other slings and arrows,
sent him to the rear with the loss of a leg; but
that far from giving up a habit thus become all
the more essential because he could no longer
safely sit a flat saddle, he concluded to supple-
ment his lack of grip (as the Marquis of Angle-

The Universal Saddle. 1 1

sea for a similar reason had done before him) by
the artificial support which is afforded in the rolls
and pads of a somerset or demi-pique, as well as
to adopt the seat best suited to his disability.
And it was such a saddle, of a pattern perhaps too
pronounced to suit even the author's eye, however
comfortable and safe, — particularly so in leaping,
which provoked the censure, perhaps quite justi-
fiable according to the light of the critic, which
has been quoted above. This variation, however,
by no means conflicts with the author's belief in,
and constant advocacy of, the flat English saddle
in its place. But he has seen so many accom-
plished riders in quite different saddles, that he
became long ago convinced that the English tree
by no means affords the only perfect seat. In
fact, the saddle best suited to universal use, that
is, the one which might best serve a man under
any conditions, approaches, in his opinion, more
nearly the modified military saddle of to-day than
the hunting type.

Nor because a local fashion, set but yesterday,
prescribes strict adherence to a style he cannot
follow, is the author less ready to venture upon
giving a friendly word of advice to many of our
young and aspiring riders. There are not a few
gentlemen in Boston, whose months in the sad-
dle number far less than the author's years, to
whose courage and discretion as horsemen he

12 Superficial Equitation.

yields his very honest admiration, and whose
stanch hunters he is happy to follow across coun-
try, nor ashamed if he finds he has lost them from
sight. He regrets to say that he has also seen
not a few who affect to sneer at a padded saddle
or a horse with a long tail, who seem incapable
of throwing their heart across a thirty inch stone
wall in a burst after hounds, although upon the
road they seek to impress one as constantly rid-
ing to cover.

It is unnecessary, however, to say that the au-
thor has too long been a lover of equestrianism
per se not to admire the good and be tolerant of
the bad for the total sum of gain which the horse-
back mania of to-day affords. He is old enough
to remember that human nature remains the
same, however fast the world may move, and is
firm in the belief that we shall soon grow to be a
nation of excellent horsemen.

There is no pretense to make these pages a
new manual for horse-training or for riding.
There are plenty of good books on horseman-
ship now in print; but unfortunately there are
few riders who care for anything beyond a super-
ficial education of either their horses or them-
selves. More than rudimentary — if viewed in
the light of the High School — the hints in this
volume can scarcely be considered. If any in-
centive to the study of the real art and to the

s

<

t— I

The Illustrations. 13

better training of saddle beasts is given, all that
these pages deserve will have been gained.

The plates are phototype reproductions from
photographs of Patroclus, taken in action by
Baldwin Coolidge. Their origin lay in the belief
that a fine-gaited horse could be instantaneously
photographed, and still show the agreeable ac-
tion which all horse-lovers admire, and have been
habituated to see drawn by artists, instead of
the ungainly positions usually resulting from the
instantaneous process. The object aimed at — to
show an anatomically correct and artistically ac-
ceptable horse in each case — has, it is thought,
been gained, so far, at least, as motion arrested
can ever give the idea of motion.

Out of thirty photographs taken, the fourteen
herein given, and one or two others, much resem-
bling some of these, showed an agreeable action.
The best positions of the horse were often the
poorest photographs. In enlarging them by solar
prints for the phototype process, the shadows of
the horse have been darkened, or in some in-
stances, where a negative has been blurred or
injured, an indistinct line has been strengthened.
In some plates the photograph was so clear (as
Plates IV. and V.) that no darkening of the shad-
ows was necessary. In others (as Plates VII. and
VIII.) the negative, though showing excellent
position, was so weak as to require a good deal of

14 The Water-Jump.

treatment. But in even the most indistinct ones
the outhne and crude shadows were clearly shown
by the negatives, and followed absolutely in treat-
ing the solar prints. The plates are thus ob-
tained intact from the original instantaneous neg-
atives, and faithfully represent the action and
spirit of the horse. The jumping pictures were
taken against the natural background, the others
against a screen or building. In the latter, the
entire background has been made white, for
greater distinctness. The water-jump was in re-
ality a dry ditch of eleven feet wide from bar to
bank. But being hidden in the original nega-
tives by the heaps of earth thrown up in digging
it, and several of the negatives being blurred in
the foreground, the water was added in the solar
prints. To preserve anatomical accuracy, the
finer results of both photography and of the pho-
totype process have had to be sacrificed.

To state that the author has often witnessed
the prize leaping at the Agricultural Hall Horse
Show in London, as well as watched the contest
of many a noted English steeple-chase, will ab-
solve him from any suspicion of parading these
photographs as examples of excellent perform-
ance. They were all taken in cold blood on one
occasion, and Patroclus was ridden alone over the
obstacles at least a dozen times for each good pic-
ture secured. Every horseman knows that this

The Hurdles. 15

is a pretty sound test of a willing jumper, if not
a crack one. Moreover, the author has been ac-
quainted with too many masters of equitation, at
home as well as abroad, to harbor any but a very
modest opinion of his own equestrian ability. He
would be much more sensitive to criticism of
Patroclus than of himself, for he knows the horse
to be an exceptionally good one within his limita-
tions, while always conscious that his own seat
lacks the firmness of ante-bellum days. It used
to be said in the Old Country that an English-
man keeps his seat to manage his horse, and that
a Frenchman manages his horse to keep his seat.
The author is obliged to confess that to-day he is
often reduced to the latter practice.

The hurdles were somewhat over four feet
high ; behind each was a bar just four feet from
the ground. The water-jumps were from fifteen
to eighteen feet from taking-off to landing. On
a number of occasions (as in Plate XII.) Patro-
clus covered over twenty measured feet in this
jump.

As is manifest from a few of the plates, it was
the action of the horse, and not the " form " of
the rider, which it was aimed to secure. It is easy
to make engravings in which the seat of the rider
shall be perfect ; but in all the wood-cut illustra-
tions of books on equitation the horse is usually
anatomically incorrect, however artistically sug-

1 6 Tom and Penelope.

gestive. One never sees the photograph of a
horse clearing an obstacle in which the rider's
form is as perfect as it is apt to be depicted in en-
gravings or paintings. And in some of the within
illustrations of road gaits there is apparent a care-
lessness in both seat and reins which would
scarcely do in the accomplishment of the high
airs of the manage, but into which a rider is some-
times apt unconsciously to lapse. No one is prob-
ably better aware of what is good and bad alike
in these plates than the author himself. He ap-
preciates " form " at its exact value, but is con-
strained to believe that the true article comes
from sources far removed from, and of vastly
more solid worth than the pigskin which covers
a rider's saddle, or the shears which bang his
horse's tail. The searching power of photogra-
phy, however, is no respecter of form or person.

A word of thanks should not be omitted to
Mr. Coolidge, whose excellent judgment and keen
eye in taking these pictures, without other appa-
ratus than his lens, is well shown by the result,
nor to the Lewis Engraving Company for their
careful reproductions from material by no means
perfect.

Perhaps it should be said that Master Tom and
Penelope, who figure in these pages, are as really
in the flesh as Patroclus, and by no means mere
fictions of the imagination.

Purpose of Plates. 1 7

There is no instruction pretended to be con-
veyed by these plates, as there is in the similarly
obtained illustrations of Anderson's excellent
" Modern Horsemanship." Their purpose is less
to point a moral than to adorn a tale. But an
apology to all is perhaps due for the very chatty
manner in which the author has taken his friend,
the reader, into his confidence, and to experi-
enced horsemen for the very elementary hints
sometimes given. The pages devoted to Penel-
ope are meant for young riders who, like Master
Tom, really want to learn.

THEODORE AYRAULT DODGE.

Brookline, Mass., April, 1885.

PATROCLUS AND PENELOPE.

A CHAT IN THE SADDLE.

I.

We are fast friends, Patroclus, and many 's the
hour since, five years ago, I bought you, an im-
petuous but good-tempered and intelligent three-
year-old colt, whom every one thought too flighty
to be of much account, that you and I have spent
in each other's company upon the pretty subur-
ban roads of Boston. And many 's the scamper
and frolic that we Ve had across the fields, and
many 's the quiet stroll through the shady woods !
For you and I, Patroclus, can go where it takes a
goodish horse to follow in our wake. I wonder,
as I look into your broad and handsome face,
whether you know and love me as well as I do
you. Indeed, when you whinny at my distant
step, or rub your inquisitive old nose against my
hands or towards my pocket, begging for another
handful of oats or for a taste of salt or sugar ;
or when you confidingly lower your head to have
me rub your ears, with so much restful intelli-

20 His Own Pedigree.

gence beaming from your soft, brown eyes, and
such evident liking for my company, I think you
know how warm my heart beats for you. And
how generous the blood which courses through
your own tense veins your master knows full
well. If I had to flee for my life, Patroclus, I
should wish that your mighty back, tough thews,
and noble courage could bear me through the
struggle. For I never called upon you yet, but
what there came the response which only the tru-
est of your race can give.

No, Pat ! you 've got all the sugar you can
have to-day. My pockets are not a grocer's shop.
Stand quiet while I mount, and you and I will
take our usual stroll.

Patroclus is said to have been sired in the Old
Country out of a cavalry mare brought over by an
English officer to Quebec, and there foaled in
Her Majesty's service. Even this much I had on
hearsay. But he has the instincts of the charger
in every fibre, — and perhaps the most intelligent
and best saddle beasts among civilized nations
belong to mounted troops. As old Hiram Wood-
ruff used to say, Patroclus makes his own pedi-
gree. I know what he is ; I care not whence he
came.

No need to extol your points. Though there
be those of higher lineage, and many a speedier

His Points. 2 1

horse upon the turf, or perchance a grander per-
former after hounds, thrice your value to whoso
will find fault or blemish upon you, my Patro-
clus! You are blood-bay and glossy as a satin
kerchief. You are near sixteen hands ; short
coupled enough to carry weight, and long enough
below to take an ample stride. You tread as
light as a steel watch-spring quivers. A woman's
face has rarely a sweeter or more trusting look
than yours in repose ; a falcon's eye is no keener
when aroused. You will follow me like a dog,
and your little mistresses can fondle you in stall
or paddock. You have all the life and endurance
of the thoroughbred, the intelligence of the Arab,
the perfect manners of the park, and the power
and discretion of a Midland Counties hunter.
Like the old song, you have

" A head like a snake, and a skin like a mouse,

An eye like a woman, bright, gentle, and brown ;
With loins and a back that would carry a house,
And quarters to lift you smack over a town."

May it be many a year yet, Patroclus, before I
must pension you off for good !

You stand for me to mount as steady as a rock.
And you know your crippled master's needs so
well that you would do it in the whirl of a stam-
pede. I will leave the reins upon your neck and

22 Equestrian Delusions.

let you walk whither your own fancy dictates, for
I am lazily inclined ; though indeed I know from
your tossing head that you fain would go a live-
lier gait. So long as you can walk your four full
miles an hour, you will have to curb your ardor
for many a long stretch, while your master chews
the cud of sweet and bitter fancies.

As we saunter along, the reflections bred of
thirty odd years in the saddle come crowding up.
From a Shelty with a scratch-pack in Surrey a
generation since, to many a cavalry charge with
bugle-clash and thundering tread on Old Domin-
ion soil now twenty years ago, the daily life with
that best of friends, — save always one, — the per-
fect saddle horse, brings many thoughts to mind.
What if we jot them down ?

II.

The most common delusion under which the
average equestrian is apt to labor in every part of
the world is that his own style of riding is the
one par excellence. Whether the steeple chaser
on his thoroughbred, or the Indian on his mus-
tang is the better rider, cannot well be decided.
The peculiar horsemanship of every country has
its manifest advantages, and is the natural out-
growth of, as well as peculiarly adapted to, the
climate, roads, and uses to which the horse is put.

" Tongs on a Wall'' 23

The cowboy who can defy the bucking broncho
will be unseated by a two-year-old which any
racing-stable boy can stick to, while this same
boy would hardly sit the third stiff boost of the
ragged, grass-fed pony. The best horseman of
the desert would be nowhere in the hunting field.
The cavalryman who, with a few of his fellows,
can carve his way through a column of infantry,
may not be able to compete at polo with a New-
port swell. The jockey who will ride over five
and a half feet of timber or twenty feet of water
would make sorry work in pulling down a lassoed
steer. Each one in his element is by far the su-
perior of the other, but none of these is just the
type of horseman whom the denizen of our busy
cities, for his daily enjoyment, cares to make his
pattern.

The original barbarian, no doubt, clasped his
undersized mount with all the legs he had, as
every natural rider does to-day. When saddle
and stirrups came into use, followed anon by
spurs, discretion soon taught the grip with knee
and thigh alone, the heels being kept for other
purposes than support. It must, however, be set
down to the credit of the original barbarian that
he probably did not ride in the style known as
" tongs on a wall." This certainly not admirable
seat originated with the knight in heavy armor,
and has since been adhered to by many nations,

24 Long or Short Seat.

and, through the Spaniards, has found its way to
every part of the Americas. But as a rule, wild
riders have the bent knee which gives the firmest
bareback seat. The long stirrup and high , can-
tie must not be condemned for certain purposes.
When not carried to the furthest extreme they
have decided advantages. It is by no means sure
that any other seat would be equally easy on the
cantering mustang for so many scores of miles a
day as many men on the plains customarily cover.
And though for our city purposes and mounts it
is distinctly unavailable, one must be cautious in
depreciating a seat which is clung to so tena-
ciously by so many splendid riders. It is a mis-
take to suppose that the Southerners and Mexi-
cans, as well as soldiers, all ride with straight leg.
While you often see this fault carried to an ex-
treme among all these, the best horsemen I have
generally observed riding with a naturally bent
knee. And it takes a great deal to convince a
good rider of any of these classes that a man
who will lean and rise to a trot knows the ABC
of equestrianism.

Whether the first saddle had a short seat and
long stirrups, a la militaire, or a long seat with
short ones, a VAiiglaise, matters little. Though
the original home of the horse boasts to-day the
shortest of stirrups (and even in Xenophon's time
this appears to have been the Asiatic habit), a

Origin of Short Stirrups. 25

reasonably long one would seem to have been the
most natural first step from the bareback seat.
If so, what is it that has gradually lengthened the
seat of the Englishman, who represents for us to-
day the favorite type of civilized horsemanship,
and if not the best, perhaps nearest that which is
best suited to our Eastern wants ?

No doubt, in early days, horses were mainly
ridden on a canter or a gallop. If perchance a
trot, it was a mere shog, comfortable enough with
a short seat and high cantle. The early horse
was a short-gaited creature. But two things came
gradually about. Dirt roads grew into turnpikes ;
and the pony-gaited nag began, about the days of
the Byerly Turk, nearly two hundred years ago,
to develop into the long-striding thoroughbred.
The paved pike speedily proved that a canter
sooner injures the fetlock joints of the forelegs
and strains the sinews of the hind than a trot,
and men merciful unto their beasts or careful of
their pockets began to ride the latter gait. But
when the step in the trot became longer and
speedier as the saddle horse became better bred,
riders were not long in finding out that to rise in
the stirrups was easier for both man and beast,
and as shorter stirrups materially aid the rise,
the seat began to grow in length. It has been
proved satisfactorily to the French, who have al-
ways been " close " riders, that to rise in the trot

26 Rising to a Trot,

saves the horse to a very great percentage, put
by some good authorities at as high a figure as
one sixth. Moreover, it was not a strange step
forward. That it is natural to rise in the trot is
shown by there being to-day many savage or semi-
civilized tribes which practice the habit in entire
unconsciousness of its utility being a disputed
point anywhere.

Another reason for shortening the leathers no
doubt prevailed. The English found the most
secure seat for vigorous leaping to be the long
one. Of course a little obstacle can be cleared in
any saddle ; but with the long seat, the violent ex-
ertion of the horse in a high jump does not loosen
the grip with knees and calves, but at most only
throws one's buckskin from the saddle, as indeed
it should not even do that. For the knees being
well in front of, instead of hanging below, the seat
of honor, enables a man to lean back and sustain
the jar of landing without parting company with
his mount, while a big jump with stirrups too
long, if it unseats you at all, loosens your entire
grip, or may throw you against the pommel in a
highly dangerous manner.

Moreover, with short stirrups, the horse is able
on occasion to run and jump " well away from
under you," while, except during the leap it-
self, the weight for considerable distances may
be sustained by the stirrups alone, and thus be

Change of Seat. 27

better distributed for the horse over ground where
the footing is unsteady, as it is in ridge and fur-
row.

No better illustration of the uses of these sev-
eral seats than an English cavalry officer. On pa-
rade he will ride with the longest of stirrups com-
patible with not sitting on his crotch. To rise in
the saddle is a forbidden luxury to the soldier.
Despite some recent experiments in foreign ser-
vice, and the fact that on the march the cavalry-
man may be permitted to rise, nay, encouraged to
do so, what more ridiculous than a troop of cav-
alry on parade, each man bobbing up and down
at his own sweet will } The horse suitable for a
trooper is a short, quick-gaited, handy animal,
chosen largely for this quality, and made still
more so by being taught to work in a collected
manner by the manege. You can very comfort-
ably sit him with a military saddle at a pretty
sharp parade trot. Now, suppose our cavalry offi-
cer is going for a canter in Rotten Row, — he
will at once shorten his stirrup-leathers a couple
of holes ; and if he were going to ride cross coun-
try, he would shorten them still a couple more.
Experience has taught him the peculiar uses of
each position.

Some writers claim that one seat ought to suf-
fice for all occasions. And so it can be made to
do. This one seat may, however, not always be

28 A Tenderfoot.

the best adapted to the work immediately in
hand, or to the animal ridden. A slight change
is often a gain. Every one has noticed that dif-
ferent horses, as well as different ground ridden
over, vary the rider's seat in the same saddle.

But excellent as is the long hunting seat in its
place, one can conceive no more ridiculous sight
than the English swell I once saw in Colorado,
who had brought his own pigskin with him, and
started out for a ten days' ride across the prairie
on an Indian pony, the only available mount.
The pony's short gait was admirable for a long
day's jaunt in a peaked saddle, but so little suited
to a cross-country rig, that the swell's condition
at the end of the first fifty miles must have been
pitiable. This unusual " tenderfoot " exhibition
elicited a deal of very natural laughter, and its
butt, who was an excellent but narrow-minded
horseman, though he stuck with square-toed Brit-
ish pluck to his rig for a few days, came back to
Denver equipped a la cowboy. His Piccadilly
saddle had been abandoned to the prairie-dogs.

III.

Patroclus watches his rider's mood. He has
become contemplative too, and has taken kindly
to our sober pace. But you shall have your turn,
my glossy pet. Let us get off this macadamized
road where we can find some cantering-ground.

The Running Walk. 29

As I shorten the reins, 't is indeed a pleasure to
see your head come up, neck arched, eye bright-
ening, alternate ears moving back to catch your
master's word, feet at once gathered under you,
and nerves and muscles on keenest tension.
Every motion is springy, elastic, bold, and free,
as full of power as it is of ease. No wonder, Pa-
troclus, that eyes so often turn to watch you. No
wonder that you seem conscious that they do.
For though we both know that the first test of
the horse is performance, yet having that, there is
pleasure to us both in your graceful gaits.

To give the reins the least possible shake will
send you into the most ecstatic of running walks,
as fast as one needs to go, and so easy that it is
a constant wonder how you do it. This is no
common amble or bumping pace, but the true
four beat rack. And as you toss your head and
champ your bit, Patroclus, with the pleasure of
your accelerated motion, how well you seem to
know the comfort of your rider.

IV.

This running walk or rack, by the way, is one
of the most delightful of gaits. Its universal
adoption in the South by every one who can buy
a racker is due to the roads, which, for many
months of the year, are so utterly impassable that
you have to pick your way in and out of the

30 The Racker.

woods and fields on either side, and rarely meet a
stretch where you can start into a swinging trot.
But a horse will fall from a walk into a rack, or
vice versa^ with the greatest of ease to himself
and rider, and if the stretch is but a hundred
yards will gain some distance in that short bit of
ground. If you have a fifty mile ride over good
roads in comfortable weather, perhaps a smart
trot, if easy, of course alternating with the walk,
is as good a single gait as you can ride. But you
need to trot or canter a goodly stretch, not to
shorten rein at every dozen rods, for the transi-
tion from a walk to either of these gaits or back
again, though slight, is still an exertion; while
from the walk to the rack and back the change is
so imperceptible that one is made conscious of
it only by the patter of the horse's feet. Here
again, the country's need, roads, and climate have
bred a most acceptable gait. But it has made
the Southerner forget what an inspiriting thing a
swinging twelve mile trot can be along a smooth
and pretty road ; and you cannot give away a
trotting horse for use in the saddle south of
Mason and Dixon. The rack soon grows into
the single-foot, which only differs from it in be-
ing faster, and the latter is substituted for the
trot. To go a six or eight mile gait, holding a
full glass of water in the hand, and not to spill a
drop, is the test of perfection in the racker. And

WhcLt is a Rack ? 31

for a lazy feeling day, or for hot weather, any-
where, it is the acme of comfort. Or it is, indeed,
a useful gait in winter, when it is too cold for a
clipped horse to walk and your nag has yet not
stretched his legs enough to want to go at sharper
speed. It must, however, be acknowledged that
it is very rare that a horse will rack perfectly as
well as trot. He is apt to get the gaits mixed.

A rack is half way between a pace and a trot.
In the pace, the two feet of each side move and
come down together; in the trot, the two alter-
nate feet do so. In the running walk, or in the
single-foot, each hind foot follows its leader at the
half interval, no two feet coming to the ground
together, but in regular succession, so as to pro-
duce just twice as many foot-falls as a trot or a
pace. Hence the one, two, three, four, patter of
the horse gives to the ear the impression of very
great rapidity, when really moving at only half
the apparent speed. The result of the step is a
swaying, easy back, which you can sit with as
much ease as a walk. Rackers will go a six mile
gait, single-footers much faster. I once owned a
single-footing mare, who came from Alexander's
farm and was sired by Norman, who could single-
foot a full mile in three minutes. As a rule, the
speed is not much more than half that rate. And
either a rack or single-foot is apt to spoil the
square trot ; or if you break a horse to trot, you

32 Patroclus' Trot,

will lose the other gaits. A perfect all-day racker
or a speedy single-footer can scarcely be aught

else.

V.

I did not mean to apply that rule to you, Pa-
troclus ! We both of us know better. For the
exceptional horse can learn to rack or single-foot
without detriment to his other paces, if he be not
kept upon these gaits too long at any time.

Half a mile ahead of us is the little grass-
grown lane, where we can indulge in a canter or
a frolicsome gallop. Shall we quicken our speed
a trifle ? Simply a " Trot, Pat ! " and on the
second step you fall into as square and level a
trot as ever horse could boast. I know how
quickly you obey my voice, old boy, and but one
step from my word I am ready to catch the first
rise, and without the semblance of a jar we are in
a full sharp trot. How I love to look over your
shoulder, Patroclus, and see your broad, flat knee
come swinging up, and showing at every step its
bony angles beyond the point of your shoulder ;
though, indeed, your shoulder is so slanting that
the saddle sits well back, and your rider is too
old a soldier to lean much to his trot. And you
will go six to — I had almost said sixteen — miles
an hour at this gait, nor vary an ounce of pres-
sure on your velvety mouth. How is it, Patro-
clus, that you catch the meaning of my hands so
readily }

Thoroughbred or Galloway, 33

VI.

The fancy of to-day is for the daisy-clipping
thoroughbred. And when they do not run to the
knife-blade pattern, they may be the finest mounts
a man can throw his leg across. But my fancy
for the road has always been for the higher step-
ping half-bred. Granted that on the turf or across
a flying country blood will tell. Granted that
brilliant knee action is mainly ornamental. Still,
in America, the half-bred will average much bet-
ter in looks, and vastly more satisfactory in hardy
service. Where shall we again find the equiva-
lent of the Morgan breed, now all but lost in the
desire to get the typical running horse } For sad-
dle work, and the very best of its kind, there was
never a finer pattern than the Morgan. Alas,
that we have allowed him to disappear! His
worth would soon come to the fore in these days
of saddle pleasures. The thoroughbred's charac-
teristic is ability to perform prodigies of speed
and endurance at exceptional times. But the
strong, every-day-in-the-year good performer is
usually no more than half-bred, if even that.
Moreover, you can find a hundred daisy-clippers
for one proud stepper, be he thoroughbred or gal-
loway. There is such a thing as waste of action.
No one wants to straddle a black Hanoverian out
of a hearse. But the horse who steps high may

34 What is a Thoroughbred?

be as good a stayer as the one who does not, and
high action is a beauty which deHghts men's eyes
and opens their purses. Because the long stride
of the turf is better for being low, it is not safe
to apply this rule to the road.

There are many more worthless brutes among
thoroughbreds than among the common herd.
While it is easy to acknowledge that the perfect
thoroughbred excels all other horses, the fact
must also be noted that he is of extremest rarity,
and even when found is infrequently up to
weight. If we use the word advisedly, only the
horse registered in the Stud Book is a thorough-
bred. These have no early training whatever, ex-
cept to allow themselves to be mounted, and to
run their best. If they stand the initial test of
speed, they are reserved for the turf, and there
wholly spoiled for the saddle or for any other pur-
pose of pleasure. If they do not, they are turned
adrift, half spoiled in mouth and manners by
tricky stable-boys, and may or may not fall into
good hands. For one thoroughbred with perfect
manners, sound, and up to weight, there are a
score of really good half-breds, as near perfection
as their owners choose or are able to make them.

What we in America are apt colloquially to call
a thoroughbred is only a horse which, in his looks,
shows some decided infusion of good blood, or is
sired by a well-bred horse. But it is to be re-

Good Half-Breds. 35

membered that of two horses with an equal strain
of pure blood, one may have reverted to a coarse
physical type, and the other to the finer. And
the one who has inherited the undeniable stamp
of the common-bred ancestor may also have in-
herited from the other side those qualities of con-
stitution, courage, intelligence, and speed, which
sum up the value of high English blood. Not
one fine-bred horse in one hundred — I speak
from the ownership of, and daily personal inti-
macy for considerable periods with, over fifty good
saddle beasts, — has as many of the admirable
qualities of pure blood as Patroclus. And yet
{absit omen), he has a wave in his tail, and though
his feet and legs are perfect in shape, and as clean
as a colt's, they are far beyond the thoroughbred's
in size. He shows that his ancestry runs back
both to the desert and the plough. In America,
surely, handsome is that handsome does. Let us
value good blood for its qualities, not looks, and
ride serviceable half-breds, instead of sporting
worthless weeds because they approach to the
clothes-horse pattern, or have necks like camels.

VII.

One of the most distinctly promising features
of the athletic tendencies of to-day is the mania
for the saddle. Fifteen years ago, the boys along
the Boston streets used to hoot at your master,

36 A Pretty Sight.

Patroclus. Not, indeed, that he had a poor seat
or needed to " get inside and pull down the
blinds," as the London cad might phrase it, for a
good or bad seat was all alike to them ; rather at
the wholly unusual sight of a man on horseback
— outside of politics.

But the number of good horsemen, and horse-
women too, is growing every day. Here comes a
couple at a brisk round trot. How can we no-
tice the lad, Patroclus, when the lassie looks so
sweetly .? In her neat habit, with dainty protrud-
ing foot and ankle, sitting her trappy-gaited mount
with ease and grace, the bloom of health fairly
dazzling you as she rushes by, so that you doubt
whether it be her pretty eye and white teeth or
her ruddy skin and happy face which has set
even your ancient heart a-throbbing, how can a
woman look more attractive ?

But the alluring sight is not long-lived. Fol-
lowing hard upon them comes, not the first rider
who has chased a petticoat, a young Anglomaniac.
He fancies that his hunting-crop, his immaculate
rig, and his elbows out-Britishing the worst of
British snobs, as he leans far over his pommel,
make him a pattern rider. You can see the day-
light under his knees. A sudden plunge would
send him. Lord knows where ! Haply his dock-
tailed plug remembers the shafts full well and
steadily plods ahead. But bless his little dudish

A Slow Canter, 37

heart! he will learn better. As his months in

the saddle increase, he will find his seat as well

as his place. We Americans are the making of

an excellent race of horsemen. It is a pleasure

to see the increase in the number of promising

riders who seek the western suburbs every day.

We shall all ride, as we manage to do everything,

well, — after a while. There is of course a lot of

rubbish and imported — rot, shall we call it ?

But what odds 1 so there is in art, music, politics,

religion.

VIII.

You see the corner of the lane, Patroclus, while
I have been thus musing, and your lively ear and
instinctively quickened gait rouse my half-dazed
thoughts. Here we are. Shall we take our accus-
tomed canter .? You always wait the word, though
you are eagerness itself, for you do not yet know
when I want you to start, or which foot I may ask
you to lead with. Though, indeed, you will some-
times prance a bit, and change step in the alter-
nate graceful bounds of the passage, to invite and
urge my choice. The least pressure of one leg,
and off you go, leading with the opposite shoul-
der. And you will keep this foot by the mile,
Patroclus, or change at every second step, should
I ask you so to do. You need but the slightest
monition of my leg, and instantly your other
shoulder takes the lead. I see you want to gallop.

38 Fox-Hunting on the Road,

boy! But not quite yet. You must not forget
that you have been taught, as they say in Ken-
tucky, to canter all day long in the shade of an
apple tree, if so be it your master wishes. You
shall have your gallop anon. But you must never
forget that a horse who can only walk or go a
twelve mile trot or hand-gallop, though he may
lead the hunt cross-country, is an unmitigated
nuisance on the road. Slow and easy gaits are as
valuable to the park-hack as long wind and speed
to the racer. And although Boston, as yet, boasts
no Rotten Row, are not the daily rides through
its exquisite environments the equivalent of the
canter in that justly celebrated resort, rather than
the mere country tramp upon a handy roadster or
the ride to cover on a rapid covert-hack.? And
yet our imitation of our British cousins has ap-
proximated less to the pleasure ride than to the
cross-country style. Perhaps, in our eagerness to
convince ourselves that we have learned all there
is worth knowing in the art, we have aped what
is confessedly the finest of horseback sports, and
forgotten the more moderate fashion of Hyde
Park. Let us remember that we can saunter on
the road every day, while riding to hounds is for
most of us a rarish luxury. •

The Perfect Hack. 39

IX.

Because a horse can go well to hounds, it does
not follow that he is fit for park or road work any
more than the three-year-old who wins the Derby
or St. Leger is fitted for a palfrey. A horse whose
business it is to run and jump must have his
head ; while a horse, to be a clever and agreeable
hack, should learn that the bit is a limitation of
his action, and that the slightest movement of the
hand or leg of the rider has its meaning. What
is impossible in galloping over ploughed fields is
essential to comfort on the road. In the field,
everything must be subservient to saving the
horse ; the rider's comfort is the rule of the park.
It is every day that we may see a rider who
deems his excellent hunter a good saddle beast,
when, however clever cross-country, he is ab-
solutely ignorant of the first elements of the
manege. He forgets that each is perfect in his
own place and may be useless in the other's.

I am the owner of a fine-bred mare, whom I
have as yet had no opportunity to school. She is
the perfect type of a twelve-stone hunter. After
hounds she will attract the eye of the whole field
for distinguished beauty, and ridden up to her
capacity, can always be in the first flight. She
has speed, endurance, and fine disposition, is as
sound and hardy as a hickory stick, and in her

40 Old Cheddar Tops.

place unsurpassed. Almost any of the horsemen
of to-day's Modern Athens would select this mare
in preference to Patroclus. And yet, a four-in-
hand of her type, as she now is, Tantivy coach
thrown in for make-weight, are not worth one
Patroclus for real saddle-work, because she has
no conception of moderate gaits. She is bound
to go twelve miles an hour if you let her out of a
walk, or fret at the restraint. I can ride Patroclus
twenty-five miles without fatigue. If I ride the
mare ten miles, I come in tired, drenched with
heat, and probably with my temper somewhat
ruffled, while she has fretted to a lather more
than once, and we have both been so hot during
the entire ride that, if the day is raw, it has been
dangerous to ease into a walk. If I ride Patro-
clus over the same ground in the same time, we
shall both come in fresh as a daisy, dry, and each
well-pleased with the other. While this mare can
gallop fast and is easy and kind, a man must
work his passage to make her canter a six mile
gait. She has no more ambition than Patroclus,
but she does not curb it to the will of her rider.
With a knowledge of all which, however, most of
our young swells would select the mare for simple
road riding, because she looks so like a thorough-
bred hunter, and rather suggests the impression
that they habitually ride to hounds. As well
saunter in the park in a pink coat and with " tops
carefully dressed to the color of Old Cheddar."

The Manege. 41

X.

The manege need not mean all the little refine-
ments of training which, however delightful to
the initiated, are unnecessary to comfort or safety.
But no horse can be called a good saddle beast
w^hose forehand and croup will not yield at once
to the lightest pressure of rein or leg. Most
horses will swing their forehands with some read-
iness, if not in a well-balanced manner. But not
many are taught to swing the croup at all ; very
few can do so handily. The perfect saddle horse
should be able to swing his croup about in a com-
plete circle, of which one fore-foot is the immova-
ble centre, or his forehand about the proper hind
foot, in either direction at will. He should come
" in hand," that is, gather his legs well under him,
so as to be on a perfect balance the moment you
take up the reins and close your legs upon him.
He should in the canter or gallop start with
either foot leading, or instantly change foot in
motion at the will of his rider. He should have
easy, handy gaits, the more the better, if he can
keep them distinct and true. These accomplish-
ments, added to a light mouth and a temper of
equal courage and moderation, or, in short, " man-
ners," make that rare creature, — the perfect sad-
dle horse.

It is in this that the English err. In their pei^

42 Military Leaping.

feet development of the hunter and the racer they
neglect the training of the hack. Though it be
heresy to the mania of the day to say so, it is
none the less true that while you seek your bold
as well as discreet and experienced cross-country
rider in England, you must go to the Continent,
or among the British cavalry, to find your ac-
complished horseman.

It is the general impression among men who
ride to hounds, and still more among men who
pretend to do so, that leaping is the tiltima thule
of equestrianism ; and that a man who can sit a
horse over a four foot hurdle has graduated in
the art of horsemanship. The corollary to this
error is also an article of faith among men who
hunt, that is, that no other class of riders can
leap their horses boldly and well. But both ideas
are as strange as they are mistaken.

The cavalry of Prussia, Austria, and Italy
show the finest of horsemanship. More than a
quarter century ago, the author spent three years
in Berlin under the tuition of a retired major-gen-
eral of the Prussian army, and saw a great deal
of the daily inside life, as well as the exceptional
parade life, of the army. He has often seen a
column of cavalry, with sabres drawn, ride across
water which would bring half the Myopia Hunt
to a stand-still on an ordinary run after hounds.
Why should not men whose business it is to ride,
do so well }

Soldiers have Stout Seats, 43

Think you there was not good horsemanship
at Vionville, when von Bredow (one of the au-
thor's old school friends, by the way) with his six
squadrons, to enable Bruddenbrock to hold his
position till the reinforcements of the Tenth
Corps could reach him, rode into the centre of
the Sixth French Corps d'Armee ? In slender
line, he and his men, three squadrons of the
Seventh Cuirassiers, and three of the Sixteenth
Uhlans, charged over the French artillery in the
first line, the French infantry in line of battle,
and reached the mitrailleuses and reserves in
the rear, where they sabred the gunners at their
guns. What though but thirteen officers and one
hundred and fifty men out of near a thousand re-
turned from that gallant ride ? Though no Ten-
nyson has sung their glorious deed, though we
forget the willing courage with which they faced
a certain sacrifice for the sake of duty to the
Fatherland, think you those men rode not well, as
a mere act of horsemanship ?

Think you that the handful of men of the
Eighth Pennsylvania, at Chancellorsville, when
they charged down upon Stonewall Jackson's vic-
torious and elated legions, riding in column
through the chapparal and over the fallen timber
of the Wilderness, carving their path through
thousands of the best troops who ever followed
gallant leader, sat not firmly in their saddles?

44 Cavalry versus Hunting.

Think you that the men who followed Sheridan
in many a gallant charge, or Fitz Hugh Lee, for-
sooth, could not ride as well as the best of us
across a bit of turf, with a modest wall now and
then to lend its zest to the pleasure ? Neither
we nor our British cousins can monopolize all the
virtue of the world, even in the art equestrian.

As there is no doubt that fox-hunting is one of
the most inspiriting and manly of occupations, or
that the English are preeminent in their knowl-
edge of the art, so there is likewise no doubt that
equally stout riders sit in foreign saddles. And
though each would have to learn the other's trade,
I fancy you could sooner teach a score or a hun-
dred average cavalry officers of any nation to ride
well across country, than an equal number of
clever, fox-hunting Englishmen to do the mere
saddle work of any well-drilled troops. Leaping
is uniformly practiced and well taught, in all reg-
ular cavalry regiments of every army with which
I have been familiar in all parts of the world.

XI.

Well, Patroclus, you have earned your gallop.
I loosen in the least my hold upon the reins, and
shaking your head from very delight, off you go
like the wind. Never could charger plunge into
a mad gallop more quickly than you, Patroclus.
Your stride is long, your gather quick, and the

Danger Ahead. 45

reserve power in your well-balanced movements
so inspiring, that I would almost ride you at the
Charles River, in the expectation that you would
clear it. But the lane is all too short. Steady,
sir, steady ! and down you come in a dozen
bounds to a gait from which you can fall into a
walk at word.

But what is that ? A rustling in the woods be-
side us ! That sounds indeed frightsome enough
to make you start and falter. You are not de-
void of fear, Patroclus. No high-couraged horse
can ever be. But though you may tremble in
every limb, if I speak to you, I may safely throw
the reins upon your neck. So, boy ! To face
danger oftener insures safety than to run from it.
To the right about, and let us see what it means.
Steady, again ! Now stand, and let it come.
There, Patroclus, despite your snort of fear, it is
only a couple of stray calves cutting their un-
gainly capers as they make their way towards
home. Their bustle, like that of so many of the
rest of us, far exceeds their importance. Was not
this much better seen than avoided ? You would
have hardly liked this pleasant lane again had we
not seen the matter through.

I have never kept you in condition, Patroclus,
to stand heavy bursts after hounds, or indeed any
exceptionally long or sharp run. That means too
much deprivation of your daily company. Nor

46 A Four-Foot Gate.

indeed, be it confessed, is your master himself
often in the condition requisite to do the sharp-
est work. It will generally be noticed that the
clear eye and firm muscle of the rider is a factor
in the problem of how to be in at the death, as
well as the lungs and courage of the hunter.
And yet, Patroclus, you are, within your limits, a
model jumper, and always seem to have a spare
leg. No horse delights more in being headed at
a wall or ditch than you, even in cold blood.
For any horse worthy the name will jump after a
fashion in company. At the end of our lane we
can take the short cut towards the great highway,
over the gate and the little brook and hedge. As
I talk to you, I can see that you catch my pur-
pose, for as we draw near the place, the might of
conscious strength seems to course through all
your veins. > Perhaps I have unwittingly settled
into my seat as I thought of the four-foot gate.
Here we are, and there is just enough bend in
the road to ride at the gate with comfort. Head
up, ears erect, eyes starting from out their sock-
ets, no need to guide you towards it, my Patro-
clus ! No excitement, no uncertainty, no flurry.
You and I know how surely we are going over.
A quiet canter, but full of elastic power, to within
about fifty feet of the jump, and then a short burst,
measuring every stride, till with a " Now boy ! " as
you approach the proper gather, I give you your

A Bit of Water. 47

head, and you go into the air Hke a swallow.
Just a fraction of a second — how much longer it
seems ! — and we land cleverly, well together, and
in three strides more you have fallen into a jog
again. And now you look back, lest, perchance,
the lump of sugar or Seckel pear which used to
reward you when you were learning your lesson
should be forthcoming now. But no, Patroclus,
my good word and a kindly pat for your docility
and strength must be your meed to-day. Canter
along on the soft turf till we come to the little
brook. We will call it a brook, and think of it
as a big one, though it is barely eight feet wide.
But never mind. We can jump thrice its width
just as well as across it. Remember, Patroclus,
water requires speed and well-set purpose, as
height does clean discretion. At it, my boy !
Take your own stride. There 's lots of room this
side and more on the other bank.

" Harden your heart, and catch hold of the bridle,
Steady him ! Rouse him ! Over he goes ! "

In the air again ; this time it seems like a minute
almost. There, Patroclus, if it had been twenty
feet of water, you would not have known the
odds. Now for the road and company.

48 Saddles,

XII.

The same reasoning may be applied to saddles
as to gaits. To pull down a bull, the Texan must
be furnished with a horn-pommel, which would
have been highly dangerous to his rider if Patro-
clus had happened to come down over the gate
just leaped. Indeed, nothing but the flattest of
saddles is safe to the steeple-chaser. On the con-
trary, the soldier rides a trot, or uses his sabre to
much better advantage with a cantle sufficiently
high to lean against. And any man is liable to
have some physical conformation requiring a pe-
culiar saddle.

The present generation of new-fledged riders
would fain tie us down to the English hunting-
seat by laws like the Medes and Persians. This
is a good pattern for our Eastern needs, but let
us not call it the only one. It is, of course, well
when in Rome to do as the Romans do, or at
least so nearly like them as not to provoke re-
mark. But every one cannot do this, and the old
trooper is not apt to ride this way. And yet,
there are thousands of ancient cavalry soldiers all
over this country, North and South, who, naked
weapon in hand, have done such feats of horse-
manship as would shame most of the stoutest of
to-day's fox-hunting, polo-playing riders. I do not
refer to the obstacles they used to ride at, — which

The Old Trooper. 49

meant a vast deal more than merely an ugly tum-
ble over a three-foot stone wall ; I refer to their
stout seats in the saddle, and the rough ground
they were wont to cover when they rode down
upon and over a belching wall of fire. For all
which, whenever we see one of these old troopers
out for a ride, modestly (for he is always modest)
airing his army saddle, strong curb, and long and
hooded stirrups, we may, perchance, notice the
jeer of the stripling, whose faultless dress and
bang-tailed screw are but a sham which hides his
lack of heart. It always gives one's soul a glow
of pride to see the well-known seat, and one is
fain tempted to ride up to the old comrade and
grasp him by the hand. A thorough rider will
recognize his equal under any garb. It is pre-
tense alone which merits a rebuke. You cannot
make a poor rider a good one by mounting him
in a fashionable saddle, any more than you can
make a worthless brute a good horse by giving
his tail the latest dock.

XIII.

Until within no great time the modified mili-
tary seat has been the one which formed the
basis of instruction. The riding-master, I pre-
sume, still insists, with civilian and recruit alike,
on feet parallel with the horse, heels down, toes
in, knee grip, and a hold of reins utterly un-

50 Knees and Feet.

known in the hunting-field. And with a certain
reason, though indeed the old whip's rule of
" 'eels and 'ands down, 'ead and 'eart 'igh," is the
whole of the story, after all. For the man who
begins with a knee grip will never forget what his
knees are for, and will not, like the good little
dude we passed a while ago, show daylight be-
tween them and the saddle-flap at every rise. But
the knee grip alone will not suffice for all occa-
sions, despite our military or riding-school friends.
A madly plunging horse or a big leap will in-
stinctively call out a grip with all the legs a man
can spare. Moreover, the closer you keep your
legs to the horse without clasping him, the better.
Go into the hunting-field or over a steeple-chase
course, and you will find that the inside of your
boot-tops — and not only yours, but every other
jockey's as well — have been rubbed hard and
constantly against the saddle. There lies the
proof. At West Point, and in fact at every mili-
tary school, the cadets are sometimes practiced to
ride with a scrap of paper held to the saddle by
the knee while they leap a bar, and at the same
time thrust or cut with the sabre at a convenient
dummy foe. I have seen a silver dollar so held
between the knee and saddle. But the bar is not
a succession of high stone walls, nor is the cadet
riding a burst of several miles. And with a
longer stirrup it is more natural to keep the foot

Sydney Smith on Riding. 51

parallel with the horse's side. To-day, the best
riders do not so hold their feet. Cross-country a
man certainly does not. The proof is forthcom-
ing at the Country Club on any race-day, or at
every meet here or in England, that a man riding
over an obstacle of any size will use all the legs
he can without digging his spurs into his horse's
flanks, in a way he could not do with the feet par-
allel to the horse's sides.

The modern dispensation differs from the old
one in not being tied to the military seat. The
Rev. Sydney Smith objected to clergymen riding,
but modified his disapproval in those cases when
they " rode very badly and turned out their toes."
A generation ago, a man was always thinking of
the position of his feet, as he cares not to do to-
day, if he sits firmly in the saddle, and boasts

light hands.

XIV.

While on this subject, one cannot refrain from
indulging in a friendly laugh at the attempt to
bend our unreasonable Eastern weather to the
conditions of a fox-hunting climate. The hunt-
ing season is that time of the year when the
crops are out of the ground. In England, during
the winter months, the weather is open and moist,
and the soft ground makes falling " delightfully
easy," as dear old John Leech has it. And the
little hedges and ditches of some of the good

52 Useless Jumping.

hunting counties, or indeed the ox-fences and
grassy fields of Leicestershire, are such as to
make a day out a positive pound of pleasure,
with scarce an ounce of danger to spice it, if you
choose to ride with moderation. For the best
rider in the Old Country is not the hare-brained
cockney who risks both his horse's and his own
less valuable neck in the field ; it is he who
chooses discreetly his course, and makes headway
with the least exertion to his hunter compatible
with his keeping a good place in the field. The
man who appreciates how jumping takes strength
out of a horse, or who is any judge of pace, is apt
to save, not risk him. Few men willingly jump
an obstacle which they can readily avoid without
too much delay. Read the legends of the famous
hunting-men of England, and you will find dis-
cretion always outranking valor. Any fool can
ride at a dangerous obstacle. Courage of that
kind is a common virtue. But it takes a make-up
of quite a different nature to be in, as a rule, at
the death. How many five-barred gates will a
man jump when he can open them .? How much
water will he face when there is a bridge near
by } Does not every one dismount in hilly coun-
tries to ease his horse ? A good rider must be
ready to throw his heart over any obstacle possi-
ble to himself and his horse, when he cannot get
round it. But a discreet horseman puts his horse

Chilly Fox-Hunting. 53

only at such leaps as he must take, or which will
win him a distinct advantage.

England is naturally a hunting country. But
here, Lord save the mark ! there are no foxes
to speak of. Scent won't lie, as a general thing,
with the thermometer below thirty (though scent
is one of those mysterious things which only
averages according to rules, and every now and
then shows an unaccountable exception), and the
obstacles are snake fences or stone walls with
lumpy, frozen ground to land on, or, belike, a pile
of bowlders or a sheet of ice. A bad fall means
potentially broken bones or a ruined horse, and
while you are beating cover for the fox who won't
be found, you are shaking with the cold, and your
clipped or over-heated beast is sowing the seeds
of lung-fever.

You, Patroclus, were once laid up five months
by landing on a snag the further side of a most
harmless-looking stone wall, and tearing out some
of the coronal arteries.

There are plenty of good horseback sports
without a resort to what is clearly out of the lati-
tude. If you wait for good hunting weather, the
crops interfere with your sport, and our farmers
have not the English inducement to welcome the
hunt across the fields, tilled at the sweat of their
brow. In the South, both weather and much
waste land make fox-hunting more easy to carry

54 Reynard loves the Chase.

on. But even there it does not thrive. Here in
the East it will not be made indigenous.

Not but what, on a bright sunny day, a meet
at which equine admirers can show their neat
turn-outs and glossy steeds and discuss horseflesh
in the general and the particular is a delight-
ful experience. And indeed, wherever crops and
covers do not monopolize the country, a good
drag-hunt may often be had before cold weather
mars the sport. Perchance, in time, Reynard may
take up his abode with us, when vulpicide shall
be punished by real ostracism. For has not
the Ettrick Shepherd proven conclusively that
Reynard loves the chase ? But far from under-
rating the caged fox or anise-seed bag, hare and
hounds would seem to afford the better sport.
For the hares, an they will, can carry you across
a country where each one can choose his own
course, instead of being obliged to follow a leader
through wood-paths, and through second growth
which is all but jungle, where, if one happens to
blunder at an obstacle, your follower will come
riding down atop of you, and where you are
bound to be " nowhere " unless you get away with
the first half-dozen men.

But spite of all its drawbacks, Patroclus, you
and I enjoy in equal measure a run under fair
conditions as much as the best of them. And
let us hope the hunting fever will be kept up in

Mossoo a Cheval. 55

healthy fashion, for we two can select our weather,
and we are not afraid of our reputation if we drop
out before the finish. This kind of work soon
shakes our novices into the saddle, and its many-
excellencies far outweigh its few absurdities. Let
him who runs it down try rather a run with the
pack some sunny day. If he does not find it
manly sport, and stout hearts in the van of the
field, he can tell us why thereafter. The outcome
of to-day's riding mania is well ahead of the
young men's billiard-playing and bar-drinking of
twenty years ago.

XV.

There are good riders in every land and in
every species of saddle. Facts are the best ar-
guments. The North American Indian and the
follower of the Prophet each performs his prodi-
gies of horsemanship, the one bareback with
hanging leg, the other in a peaked saddle with
knee all but rubbing his nose. Whoso has laughed
over Leech's sketches of Mossoo, who makes a
promenade a cheval, or indeed has watched him
in the Bois, is fain to doubt that a Frenchman
can ride well. And yet he does. Was not
Baucher the father of fine horsemanship 1 A
rough and tumble, plucky rider, or one who is
experienced and discreet after hounds as well, is
more frequently found in Great Britain ; a highly

56 Comparative Enjoyment,

skilled equestrian (is the author nearing a hornet's
nest ?) in France, or elsewhere across the Chan-
nel. But we naturally must seek the Continental
rider in the camp, for is not the Continent itself
one vast camp ? It is perhaps hard to decide
whether the cavalry officer who is master of the
intricacies of the manege or the country gentle-
man who has won a reputation with the Pytchley
or the Belvoir may be properly called the more
accomplished horseman. Each in his place is
unequaled. But is it not true, that the former
can more quickly adapt himself to the habits of
hunting than the latter to those of the Haute
Ecole ? And do not the methods of the School
give us more capacity for enjoying our daily
horseback exercise, than any amount of experi-
ence with hounds ?

XVI.

It is sometimes said in England that a School-
rider reining in his steed never looks as if he
were having a thoroughly good time, as does the
man who lets his horse go his own inspiriting
gait along the road. But why not.? Is inspira-
tion only found in excess of physical motion } If
so, to use an exaggerated comparison, why does
not Paddy at Donnybrook Fair, trailing his coat
and daring some one to tread on the tail of it, en-
joy himself more thoroughly than the man who

Comparative Power. 57

quietly plays a game of chess or whist ? Or to
use a more nearly equal simile, may not a man
find as great enjoyment in a skilled game of ten-
nis, as in the violent rushes of foot-ball, where
two hundred and twenty pounds of mere blubber
will assuredly bear down all the prowess and apt-
ness of his own say one hundred and forty ? It
is as certain that the pleasure of riding a trained
horse is greater than that of merely sitting a vig-
orously moving untrained one, as that the delight
of intellectual study exceeds the excitement of
trashy reading. Omne ignotuin pro magnifico
seems not to be uniformly true, for riders unfa-
miliar with the training of the High School al-
most as invariably run down its methods, as self-
made business men are apt to discountenance a
college education as a preliminary discipline for
the struggles of life.

It is a fact that no man who has once been a
School-rider ever abandons either the knowledge
he has gained or its constant practice. No one
can underrate the pleasure of simple motion upon
a vigorous horse. But the School-rider has this
in equal degree with the uneducated horseman,
coupled with a feeling of control and power and
ability to perform which the mere man on horse-
back never attains. Moreover, all the powers of
the School-rider's horse are within the grasp of
his hand ; and that the powers of the high-strung

58 Limit of School-Riding.

steed of the average equestrian are all too often
resident mainly in the animal itself is shown by
the chapter of accidents daily reiterated in the
news-columns. The School-man is apt to ride
more moderately, and to indulge in a bracing gal-
lop less frequently, because to him the pleasure
of slow and rhythmic movement on a fleet and
able horse is far greater than mere rapidity can
ever be ; the untrained rider resorts to speed be-
cause this is the one exhilaration within the
bounds of his own or his horse's knowledge.

I do not wish to be understood as advocating
the School habit of always keeping a horse col-
lected. However much for some purposes I ad-
mire it, I do not practice it I often saunter off
a half-dozen miles without lifting the rein, while
Patroclus wanders at his own sweet will. I often
trot or gallop at my nag's quite unrestrained gait.
But if I want to collect him, if I want that obedi-
ence which the School teaches him to yield, he
must, to be to me a perfect horse, at my slightest
intimation give himself absolutely to my control,
and take all his art from me. I feel that I am a
good judge of either habit of riding, as I have
well tried both, and absolutely adhere to neither.
I pretend by no means, in School-riding, to have
carried my art so far as to be even within hail of
the great masters of equitation ; but I have not
for many years been without one or more horses

Patroclus Browsing. 59

educated in all the School airs which are applica-
ble to road-riding, and I know their value and ap-
preciate it.

Because, then, the cowboy is nowhere in the
hunting-field; or because the hard-riding squire
and M. F. H. cannot drop to the further side of
his horse while he shoots at his galloping enemy,
or pick up a kerchief from the ground at a smart
gallop ; or because the Frenchman has to learn
his racing trade from an English jockey, it will
not do to say that each is not among the best of
horsemen, or that either is better than the other.
The style of riding is always the outgrowth of
certain conditions of necessity or pleasure, and
invariably fits those conditions well. With us in
the East the English habit is no doubt the most
available ; but it can only be made the test of our
own needs or fashions, not of general equestrian-
ism.

XVII.

While all this has been buzzing through your
master's brain, you, Patroclus, knowing full well
that the loosely hanging rein has meant liberty
within reason to yourself, have wandered away to
the nearest thicket, and begun to crop the tender
leaves and shoots as peacefully as you please.
To look at your quiet demeanor at this moment
one would scarcely think that you were such a
bundle of nerves. You can be as sedate as Ro-

6o A Happy Horse.

sinante till called upon. But when the bit plays
in your mouth, you are as full of life and action
as the steeds of Diomed with flowing manes.
Your eye and ear are an index to your mood, and
you reflect your rider's wish in every step. No
man ever bestrode a more generous beast than
you. Do you remember, Patroclus, the days
when you carried your little twelve-year-old mis-
tress, and how her first lessons in fine equitation
were taken in your company? And cleverly did
she learn indeed. Do you remember how we used
to put you on your honor, though you were only a
five-year-old and dearly loved to romp and play }
Ay, Patroclus, and fairly did you answer the ap-
peal ! With the gentle burden on your broad,
strong back, her golden-red hair streaming be-
hind her in the breeze from under her jaunty hat,
you would have ridden through fire, my beauty,
rather than betray your trust. However tempted
to a bound, or however startled at some fearsome
thing, one word — a "Quiet, Pat!" — from that
soft girlish voice, now hushed for both of us,
would never fail to keep you kind and steady.
And you were ever willing, with even more than
your accustomed alacrity, to perform your airs at
the slightest encouragement of the soft hands and
gentle voice ; and having done so would lay back
your ears and shake your head with very pleasure
at the rippling laughter in which your pretty rid-

Photography vs. Art. 6 1

er's thanks were wont to be expressed. I knew,
Patroclus, that in your care the Httle maid was
quite as safe as with her doll at home.

XVIII.

And now a word about the horse in action, as
shown by instantaneous photography, and about
the war waged between artists and photographers.
Some disciples of Muybridge would fain have the
artist depict an animal in an ungainly attitude,
because the lens is apt to catch him at a point in
his stride which looks ungainly, there being many
more such points than handsome ones. It is the
moving creature which we admire. The poetry
of motion is rarely better seen than in a proudly
stepping horse. But arrest that motion and you
are apt to have that which the human eye can
neither recognize nor delight itself withal. Ar-
rested motion rarely suggests the actual motion
we aim to depict. The lens will show you every
spoke of a rapidly revolving wheel, as if at rest.
The eye, or the artist, shows you a blur of motion.
And so with other objects. The lens works in the
hundredth part of a second ; the eye is slower far.

To a certain extent photography, quoad art, is
wrong and the limner is right. There are some
horses which possess a very elegant carriage. In
their action there are certain periods — generally
those at which one fore and one hind leg are

62 Suggestiveness of Art.

slowing up at the limit of their forward stride —
when the eye catches an agreeable impression
which is capable of being reduced to canvas, —
though it is after all the proud motion itself
which pleases, and this can only be suggested.
Now, photography robs you of almost all the sug-
gestiveness of the horse's action, unless you se-
lect only those photographs which approach the
action caught by the human eye. Even after
long study of the Muybridge silhouettes, the ar-
tistic lover of the horse feels that he must reject
all but a small percentage of these wonderful
anatomical studies. If there are periods in the
horse's stride which are agreeable to the eye, why
should the artist not select these for delineation ?
Why indeed does his art not bind him to do so ?

You, Patroclus, are peculiarly elegant in mo-
tion. It is difficult to pick a flaw in the sym-
metry of your gaits. Slow or fast, fresh or tired,
your motion is always proud and graceful. And
yet out of many photographs, few suggest your
action at all, fewer still even passably ; none con-
vey to its full extent what all your intimates well
know.

To photograph well, a horse must have a good
deal, but not an excessive amount of action, and
with unquestioned grace of curves. The reason

What Horses Photograph Badly. 63

why horses in very rapid motion photograph illy
is to be found in the too extreme curves de-
scribed by their legs in the powerful strides of
great speed, any position in which, arrested by
the lens, looks exaggerated, — sprawling. The
reason why, on the other hand, the photograph
of a daisy-clipper moving slowly looks tame is
the lack of action to suggest the motion which
the eye follows in real life. Many of the best
performers are plain in action. Some of the
most faultless movers, so far as results or form
are concerned, even when agreeable to the eye,
will show unsightly photographs. Let any one
who desires to test this matter have a half-dozen
instantaneous photographs of his pet saddle beast
taken. He will surely be convinced that a horse
must be extremely handsome in motion to give
even a passable portrait. If he gets one picture
in four which shows acceptably, he may be sure
that he owns a good-looking nag. Among the
silhouettes in the Stanford Book, scarcely one in
twenty shows a handsome outline. This seems
to be owing, as above explained, to the speed ex-
hibited in almost all the performances; and in
the slow gaits, to the want of action in the sub-
jects. Still, if the pictures had shown the light
and shade which instantaneous photography is
now able to give, many of the plates would have
made artistic pictures.

64 Artists Errors,

There are certainly many minutice in which
the artist can learn from the photograph. To
give an instance : before reaching the ground, the
leg in every gait must be stiffened, and the bot-
tom of the foot brought parallel to the surface
traveled over, or a stumble will ensue. This, at
first blush, may look awkward ; but it is not
really so. The artist often forgets that a horse
must sustain his weight on stiff legs, and that
these straighten from their graceful curves to
the supporting position in regular gradation, and
reach this position just before the foot comes
down. Some in other respects most attractive
sketches fail in this. Often one sees the picture
of an otherwise handsomely moving horse whose
fetlock joint of the foot just being planted is so
bent forward as to make a drop inevitable. This
is certainly without the domain of true art.

The origin of such drawing lies probably in
the fact that the eye catches the bent rather than
the straight position of the fetlock, because the
former occurs when the foot is higher above the
ground, while the latter position is not so notice-
able as being more out of the line of sight. But
such stumbling pictures are as much a worry to
the horseman's eye as the ugliest of the Muy-
bridge gallopers is to the artist's; and they are
wholly unnecessary.

There are many such minor points of criti-

LeecJis Running Horse. 65

cism of the usual artistic work, which the artists
should not deem beyond consideration. It is
quite possible to make the truthful and the ar-
tistic go hand in hand.

Except, perhaps, in the gallop. This most dis-
heartening gait will not be reduced to what we
have been taught to like. There is but one of the
five " times " of the gallop which suggests even
tolerable speed, — the one when all four feet are
in the air and gathered well under the horse. At
the instant when one of the hind legs is reaching
forward to land, there is sometimes a suggestion
of great speed and vigor. But the successive
stilted strides when the straightened legs in turn
assume the body's weight oppress the very soul
of the lover of the Racing Plates. It must fain
be left to the wisest heads, and perhaps better to
time, to bring daylight from this darkness.

The late John Leech, as far back as the forties,
essayed to draw running horses as his very keen
eye showed him that they really looked ; but he
was laughed out of the idea, and thenceforth
stuck to the artist's quadruped, though he had
been, in his new departure, much more nearly ap-
proaching anatomy than any one was then aware.
And thirty years ago, on Epsom Downs, it was
revealed to the author, as it has no doubt been to
thousands of others, that it is the gathered and
not the spread position of the racer which is

66 Spread-Eagle Run.

impressed upon the eye. This is most clearly
shown by watching the distant horses through a
glass. But still we stick to the anatomically im-
possible spread-eagle stride of the turf, and feel
that it conveys the idea of speed which is not
compassed by the SQ.i facsimiles of photography.

It has been alleged that a horse never does, nor
can take the spread position of the typical racer
of the artist. This is true enough, for he never
does extend himself to so great a degree. But
at one part of the leap he may do this very thing,
though by no means to the extent usually de-
picted (see Plate XL). It is, however, certain that
he cannot do so at all in the gallop. At the only
time when all his feet are off the ground in this
gait, they are all close together under his girths.
At all other times there are one or more feet on
the ground, with legs straight, and at greater
or less inclination to the body. From front to
rear the legs move almost like the spokes of a
wheel. What the pictures of the turf in the fu-
ture may be it is hard indeed to say.

And yet, the longer one examines the many
hundred silhouettes of running horses, so well
grouped for anatomical study in the Stanford
Book, the more reconciled to what there is of
truth in them one may become. Many years ago,
I sat during the forenoon in the Turner Room of
the National Gallery in London, in the company

The Muybridge Run. 67

of a friend, herself no mean artist, and of de-
cidedly strong artistic taste and correct judgment,
whose ideas of Turner had been founded solely
on what she had read, or seen and heard in Amer-
ica, and whose prejudice against his apparently
overwrought work was excessive. For a full hour
few words were passed. Then, rising to go : " If
I sit here any longer, I shall end by liking the
man ! " quoth she.

It seems to me that the power in these Muy-
bridge photographs grows upon you. It is uni-
versally acknowledged that one does not see the
running horse as he is usually drawn ; in other
words, that the artist's run is incorrect. Now, if
the retina has anything impressed upon it, it must
assuredly be either one of the positions actually
taken by the galloping animal, or else a mere blur
of motion. The artist draws a blurred wheel be-
cause he sees it blurred, and it suggests rapid mo-
tion. But he will not draw blurred legs, because
such drawing will not suggest what he desires to
convey in his picture. And yet, if he is true to
what his eye has seen, he must draw some of the
positions the horse has been in, and not positions
which he cannot by any possibility have passed
through in this gait. I take it for granted that
the eye catches the gathered positions, and these
are the ones in which the horse is entirely in the
air, with his legs under his girths, and with hind

68 What should Artists do ?

feet reaching forward to land. Why should not
the artist draw these positions, in their thousand
variations, in lieu of the one single impossible po-
sition now universally in vogue ? Without alleg-
ing that he should do so, will the artist tell me
why he should not ? For unless it be assumed
that the usually drawn position is a sort of geo-
metrical resultant of the rapid series of positions
passed through, and is hence adopted because the
eye mathematically and unconsciously reduces
these positions to the resultant, where is the truth
which the artist aims to produce ? For I under-
stand art to be the reproduction of what the eye
can see, or at least its close suggestion. And
though there may be room to doubt what the eye
may see, there is no room to doubt what the
horse actually does in the gallop.

It is probable that the spread-eagle position is
a mere outgrowth of the canter, which in a slight
degree approximates to the action of the artist's
run, and that the latter has been exaggerated as a
means of conveying the idea of increased speed.
I have yet heard no allegation that the eye
catches any but the gathering positions of the
horse's gallop. Now, given this, given an artist
equal to and interested in the task, and the ana-
tomical results of photography, and it would seem
as if a sincere desire to reconcile the eye with po-
sitions which the retina must certainly catch as

A Sensitive Mouth. 69

the horse bounds by might evoke more satisfac-
tory results. Here is a life-work worthy of the
best of animal painters. Who will take it up.f*
I plead for " more light."

XIX.

To return to our muttons, it is not too much to
aver that any well-trained horse knows much more
than the average good equestrian. It requires a
light and practiced hand to evoke Patroclus'
highest powers. He has never refused an obsta-
cle with his master, or failed to clear what he
fairly went at. But the least uncertainty be-
trayed in the hand, and Patroclus knows some-
thing is wrong, and acts accordingly.

I learned a good lesson about spoiling him
for my own comfort not long ago, when asked the
privilege of riding him over a few hurdles on my
lawn by a friend who had an excellent seat in the
saddle, but liked, and had been used to a horse
who seized hold of the bridle. Patroclus took
the first, but to my own and my friend's surprise
quite refused the second, and could by no means
be persuaded to face it. On my friend's yielding
me the saddle, I mounted, and walked Patroclus
up to the hurdle with a firm word of encourage-
ment ; and though he wavered, he took it on a
standing jump. The slight reward of a tuft of
grass and a pat made him do better on the second

70 " Perfectly Trained^

trial, but for weeks afterwards he was nervous at
that particular hurdle, though at anything else he
went with his accustomed nerve. My friend and
I were both unaware of how his hands had erred,
but the horse's fine mouth had felt it.

Patroclus is essentially a one-man horse. He
will always serve well for the wage of kindness,
but it would take a hard taskmaster but a short
week to transform him into the semblance of the
Biblical wild ass's colt. He will change his gaits
at will from any one to any other. But his rider's
hands must be steady and as skilled as his own
soft mouth, or how can the lesser mind compre-
hend .f* He may, at the bidding of uncertain reins,
change from gait to gait and foot to foot, seeking
to satisfy his ignorant rider, who, meanwhile, un-
able to catch his meaning, will dub him a stupid,
restless brute. A well-trained horse needs an
equally well-trained rider.

XX.

There are two kinds of " perfectly trained "
saddle horses. One is the well-drilled cow of the
riding-schools, fit only to give instruction to class
after class of beginners, and who is safe because
worked beyond his courage and endurance. The
other is the School-horse, of perfect vigor and
fine manners, who is obedient to the slightest
whim of the clever rider, but who is so entire an

Bauchers Horse. 71

enigma to the untrained one, that he is unable to
ride him at even his quiet gaits.

One of my friends in Touraine used in his
youth to be a pupil of the famous Baucher. He
once told me how, at the instigation of his class-
mates, he begged hard for many days to be al-
lowed to ride the master's favorite horse, with
whom he was apt to join his higher classes. My
friend flattered himself that he could manage any
horse, as he had long ridden under Baucher's in-
struction. As an example to the class, the master
finally gave way. But the experiment was short.
My friend soon found that he was so much less
accomplished than the high-strung beast that he
was utterly unable to manage or control him,
much less to perform any of the School airs, and
he was by no means sorry when his feat of equi-
tation was terminated by so dangerous a rear that
Baucher deemed it wise to come to the rescue.
My friend's hands, though well drilled, were so
much less delicate than the horse's mouth, that
the latter had at first mistaken some peculiar un-
steadiness as the indication for a pirouette, to
which he had obediently risen ; but then, on feel-
ing some additional unsteadiness of the reins, he
had, in his uncertainty and confusion, reared quite
beyond control. Yet under the master this horse's
habit of obedience was so confirmed that he was
apparently as moderate as any courageous horse

72 An'alf and'alfunter.

should be, though actually of a hyper-nervous
character.

Nothing but time will make a thorough horse-
man ; but a few months will make a tolerable
horseman of any man who has strength, courage,
intelligence, and good temper. If a man confines
his ambition to a horse whom he can walk, trot,
and canter on the road in an unbalanced manner,
and who will jump an ordinary obstacle, so as
to follow the hounds over easy country, it needs
but little time and patience to break in both man
and beast to this simple work. If a man wants
what the High School calls a saddle beast, a full
half year's daily training is essential for the horse,
and to give this the man must have had quite
thrice as much himself. Fix the standard at an
'alf and 'alf 'unter and your requirements are
soon met. Raise the standard of education to a
horse well-balanced, who is always ready to be
collected and always alert to his rider's wants and
moods, and who can do any work well, and you
need much more in both teacher, pupil, and rider.
No horse can be alike perfect in the field and in
the park. But the well-trained road horse can
always hunt within the bounds prescribed by his
condition, speed, and jumping ability; the finest
hunter is apt to be either a nuisance on the road
or too valuable for such daily work. It will not
do to quote this as an invariable rule. But it cer-
tainly has few exceptions.

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Plate VII.

RISING AT A HURDLE.

Tom and Penelope. 73

Moreover, a hunter requires many weeks to be
got into fine condition, and can then perform well
not exceeding half a dozen days a month, and
needs a long rest after the season. And it is not
the average man who is happy enough to own a
stable so full or to boast such ample leisure as to
tax his horseflesh to so very slight an extent.

XXL

But what is that, Patroclus? Up goes your
head, your lively ears pricked out, with an inquis-
itive low-voiced whinny. What is it you sniff
upon the softly-moving air.? Well, well, I know.
That neigh and again a neigh betrays you. As
sure as fate it is one of your stable-mates coming
along the road. Perhaps our young friend Tom,
upon his new purchase, Penelope. We will go
and see, at all events. I never found you wrong,
and I never knew your delicate nose to fail to
sniff a friend before the eye could catch him, or
your pleasant whinny fail to speak what you had
guessed as well. Sure enough, there he comes
and Nell has heard you too. Both Tom and
she are out for the lesson which either gives the
other. Now for a sociable tramp and chat in the
company you like so well. And you and I will
try to give Penelope and Master Tom a few hints
which he has often asked, and of which all young
horses and riders are apt to stand in need.

74 Uses of Riding-Schools.

XXII.

Good-morrow, Tom, and how are you, sleek
Nelly ? A fine day this for a tramp. Patroclus
sniffed you a long way off, and now is happy to
rub his nose on Nelly's neck, while she, forsooth,
much as she likes the delicate attention, lays back
her ears with a touch-me-not expression charac-
teristic of the high-bred of her sex. A lucky dog
are you to throw your leg across such a dainty
bit of blood !

You, Tom, are one of numberless young men
who want to learn that which they have not the
patience to study out of technical books and will
hardly acquire in a riding-school ; who, in other
words, rather than learn on tan-bark, have pre-
ferred to purchase a horse and teach themselves.
A man may do well in a school or on a horse
hired in a school, and yet not know how to begin
the training of a horse which has been only
broken in to drive, as most of our American colts
are, however eager to improve him for the saddle.
Let us compare notes as we saunter along the
road.

Do not understand me to depreciate the value
of riding-schools, nor the training which they in-
culcate. On the contrary. School-training carried
far enough and properly given is just what I do
advocate. But between the riding-school and

Learn the Art Yourself, 75

School-riding, there is a great gulf fixed. The
capital letter is advisedly used. A horse which
has been given a good mouth, and has been
taught as far as the volte and demi-volte, simple
and reversed (though indeed the riding-school
volte and the volte of the Haute Ecole are differ-
ent things), certainly knows a fairish amount, and
may be able to teach his rider much of what he
knows. But riding in a school is not road-riding,
although a school-horse may have profited well
by his education. Leaping a school hurdle is not
riding to hounds. A thoroughly good riding-
school horse may be a very brute when in the
park. Perfect manners within four walls may
disappear so soon as the horse gets a clear mile
ahead of him. Assuredly, it is well enough to
learn the rudiments at a good riding-school. But
if you ever want to become a thorough horseman
and have equally good horses, study the art for
yourself, — there is no mystery about it, — and
learn what a horse should know and how to teach
him. When you have done this, you will have a
satisfactory saddle beast. If you expect a groom
or a riding-school master to train your horses for
you, you will not have a perfect mouth or good
manners once in a hundred times. If the master
is expert, he will be too busy to do your horses
full justice short of an exorbitant honorarium.
The groom is, as a rule, both ignorant and impa-
tient, if not brutal.

76 Value of Schooling.

XXIII.

I know of no better foundation for a man to
begin upon than the breaking-in to harness,
which an American horse has usually received at
the hands of an intelligent farmer, before he is
brought to the city for sale. Starting with the
horse, then, say at five years old, if you will
learn how to give him his saddle education, and
do it yourself, you will have, in ninety-nine cases
out of a hundred, a better saddle beast in six
months than any groom can, or any riding-master
is apt to make.

There is somewhat of a tendency among the
English, and much more among their American
imitators, to decry as unnecessary the training of
horses beyond a mouth somewhat short of leather
and two or three easy road gaits ; or, in hunters,
the capacity to do well cross-country. But there
is vastly more to be said on the side of High
School training. By a three months' School
course stubborn horses may be made tractable,
dangerous horses rendered comparatively safe,
uncomfortable brutes easy and reliable. Vices
may be cured, stumbling may be made far less
dangerous, if the habit cannot be eradicated,
physical defects, unfitting a horse for saddle work,
may often be overcome, and the general utility of
the average horse vastly increased. All this, and

Sixth U. S. Cavalry. 77

much more, may be done, without touching upon
the gain in ease to the rider, the pleasure to be
derived when both man and beast are enabled to
work in unison, the ability schooling gives to the
weakest hand to hold the most high-strung horse,
and the great variety of motions, speeds, and
paces which may be taught to subserve the com-
fort and delight of the rider. Whoso will claim
that the reader of the last French play enjoys as
great a privilege and pleasure as the student of
Hamlet, or that the day laborer is the equal of the
skilled artisan, may deny the utility of schooling
the horse for saddle-work. No reference is here
intended to be made to racing-stock, or to hunt-
ers kept as such. These stand in a class by them-
selves, requiring different aptitudes and treatment.
An interesting proof of the general value of
training has been recently developed in the Sixth
U. S. Cavalry, stationed in New Mexico. In
some of the troops the horses have been drilled
to lie down and allow the men to fire over them,
— a most valuable bit of discipline, peculiarly
suited to Indian warfare. From the course of
training necessary to bring about this end has re-
sulted an unexpected but very natural docility in
the horses, which are Californian bronchos, and a
poor class of animal. Horses formerly considered
dangerous have become quite gentle, and the en-
tire condition of the command has been changed.

78 Books on Equitation.

So far as the belief goes that what are called
the High School airs are unessential, it is easy to
agree with the English opinion ; but it is clear
that the saddle horse should have far more train-
ing than he generally receives in England, and
certainly than he receives here. It would seem
that the better position lies midway between the
Haute Ecole of the Continent and the half and
half training of Great Britain.

I do not mean to imply that there are not
many beautifully trained saddle beasts in Eng-
land. You see in Rotten Row, among a vast lot
of brutes, probably more fine mounts than you
will find in any other known resort of fashion,
more than anywhere in the world outside of cav-
alry barracks. But the ordinary run of English
hacks are taught to trot and canter, and there
their training ceases. And so entirely is the ed-
ucation of horses left to grooms and riding-mas-
ters, that even the most elaborate English works
on equitation, while they say that a horse should
be taught to do thus and so, and give excellent
instructions for riding a trained horse, afford no
clue to the means of training. On the other
hand, the High School manuals go far beyond
what most men have patience to follow or a de-
sire to learn, excellent as such an education may
be for both horse and rider.

I should be sorry indeed to be understood to

English Horsemanship. 79

underrate the horsemanship of England. I do
not suppose that the excellence and universality
of the equestrianism of Englishmen has any more
sincere admirer than myself. But it is true that
equitation as an art exists only among the mili-
tary experts of the Old Country, and that the
training of English horses is not carried beyond
bare mediocrity among civilians for road-work.
For racing or hunting, the English system is per-
fect. The burden of my song is that we Amer-
icans shall not too closely imitate one single
English style for all purposes. If we will truly
imitate the best English methods, each in its
appropriate place, and not pattern ourselves solely
on the fox-hunting type, we shall do well enough ;
though in riding, as in all the arts, it is wisest, as
well as most American, to look for models in
every direction, and select the best to follow.
What I wish to protest against is the dragging
of the hunting-field into the park, and what I
wish to urge is the higher education of — horses.
One has only to go back to the thirties in Eng-
land to find all the niceties of the Haute Ecole in
full bloom. Not only the young swells, but the
old politicians and the celebrated generals, used
used to go " titupping " down the Row, pas-
saging, traversing, and piaffing to the admiration
of all beholders. But the age which, in the race
for the greatest good to the greatest number, has

8o Lost Courtesies.

brought about simplicity in men's dress, and has
reduced oratory to mere conversation ; which has
given the layman the right to abuse the church,
and the costermonger the privilege of running
down royalty, has changed all this. And as we
have doubtless gone too far in many directions, in
our desire to make all men free and equal, may
we not have also gone too far in discarding some
of the refinements of equestrianism ? And is it
not true, and pity, that the old-fashioned outward
courtesy to women (for the courtesy of the heart,
Dieu Tnerci, always remains to us), whose decrease
is unhappily so apparent to-day, and among the
young is being supplanted by a mere camaraderie^
is being swept from our midst by the same revul-
sion towards the extremely practical, which has
discarded the beruffled formalities of our forebears
and the high airs of equitation ?

We have, in the East, been so imbued with an
imitative mania of the hunting style of England,
that if one rides a horse on any other than an
open, or indeed an all but disjointed walk, trot, or
canter, he is thought to be putting on airs, in
much the same measure as if he should dress in
an unwarranted extreme of fashion upon the
street. But if we are to ape the English, why not
permit on Commonwealth Avenue — or by and
by, we trust, the Park — what is daily seen in
Rotten Row ? No one who has tasted it can

The Park-Hack. 8i

deny the exhilarating pleasure given you by a
horse who is fresh enough to bound out of the
road at any instant, who conveys to you in every
stride that glorious sense of power which only a
generous heart as well as supple muscles ever
yield, and who is yet well enough schooled to
rein down to a five-mile canter, with his haunches
well under him ; while, though he is burning
with eagerness to plunge into a gallop, he curbs
his ambition to your mood, and rocks you in the
saddle with that gentle combination of strength
and ease to which an uneducated gait is no more
to be compared than Pierce's cider (good as it is
in its place) to Mumm's Cordon Rouge. When
one is riding for the pleasure of riding, why not
use all the art which will add zest to your pleas-
ure, rather than aim to give the impression that
you are sauntering to cover, well ahead of time,
and don't want to tire your horse, because you
expect to tax him severely during the day with
the Myopia beagles across the pretty country
near Weld Farm ?

A celebrated English horseman says : " The
park-hack should have, with perfection of grace-
ful form, graceful action, an exquisite mouth, and
perfect manners." " He must be intelligent, for
without intelligence even with fine form and ac-
tion he can never be pleasant to ride." " The
head should be of the finest Oriental type ; the

82 An Excellent Manual.

neck well arched, but not too long." " The head
should be carried in its right place, the neck
gracefully arched. From the walk he should be
able to bound into any pace, in perfectly bal-
anced action, that the rider may require." And
yet such a horse, though esteemed a prize in
Rotten Row, would be all but tabooed on the
streets of Boston, because he is not the type of a
fine performer to hounds.

XXIV.

There are so many manuals of the equestrian
art from which any aspiring and patient student
of equitation may derive the information requisite
to become an expert horseman, that beyond a few
hints for the benefit of those who, like you, Tom,
know nothing and want to learn a little about the
niceties of horseback work, it would be pre-
sumptuous to go. If a man desires to learn how
to train a horse thoroughly, he must go back to
Baucher, or to some of Baucher's pupils. All
the larger works which cover training contain the
elements of the Baucher system. The recent
work of Colonel E. L. Anderson, late of General
George H. Thomas' staff, written in England and
published by David Douglas of Edinburgh, is a
most excellent work.

I have found as a rule that abstruse written ex-
planations are very difficult to understand. In a

Proper Result of Schooling. 83

recent excellent book on riding-school training
(not School-riding mind you), though I know per-
fectly well what the riding-school volte and demi-
volte are, as well as the School-volte and demi-
volte, simple and reversed, I have read certain
paragraphs dozens of times, without being able to
make the words mean what the movement really
is. Colonel Anderson's book is very clear, though
it goes fully into the refinements of the art, ex-
cept the quasi-circus tricks and airs, and from it,
with time and patience, a man can make himself
an accomplished rider and his steed equal to any
work — outside the sawdust ring.

But you, Tom, do not aspire to go so far in the
training of Penelope.

XXV.

You must not suppose that a man who teaches
his horse all the airs of the Haute Ecole con-
stantly uses them, any more than an eminent di-
vine is always in the act of preaching, or 2i prima
donna assoluta is at all times warbling or prac-
ticing chromatic scales, when each ought to be
engaged in the necessary but prosaic details of
life. The best results of School training lie in
the ability of the horse and rider to do plain and
simple work in the best manner. Because a
horse can traverse or perform the Spanish trot,
his rider need not necessarily make him traverse

84 Uses of Schooling.

or passage past the window of his inamorata,
while he himself salutes her with the air of a
grandee of Aragon. For this would no doubt
be bad style for a modern horseman in front of a
Beacon Street mansion ; though truly it might
be eminently proper, as well as an interesting dis-
play of horsemanship, for the same rider to trav-
erse past his commanding general while saluting
at a review on Boston Common. Nor because a
horse can perform the reversed pirouette with
perfect exactness will a School-rider stop in the
middle of a park road and parade the accomplish-
ment. But this same reversed pirouette is for
all that the foundation of everything that a well-
trained horse should be able to do, and if he
knows it, he is ready to make use of it at all
times for the greater ease, safety, and pleasure of
his master.

You may ask of what use it can ever be. Sup-
pose you were riding with a lady, on her left, —
which is the safe and proper, if not the fashionable
side, — and her saddle should begin to turn, say
toward you, as it is most apt to do. If your horse
minds the indication of your leg, you can keep
him so close to your companion's as to afford her
suitable assistance, even to the extent of bodily
lifting her clear of her saddle. If your horse is
only half trained, you cannot, perhaps, bring him
to the position where you want him in season to

Plate VIII.

FLYING A HURDLE.

opening a Gate. 85

be of any service at all. Have you never seen a
man who was trying to open a gate at which a
score of impatient, not to say objurgatory, riders
were waiting, while the field was disappearing
over the hills and far away, and who could neither
get at it nor out of the way, because his crack
hunter did n't know what the pressure of his mas-
ter's legs meant, and fought shy of the gate, while
keeping others from coming near it? Have you
never stood watching a race at the Country Club,
with a rider beside you whose horse took up five
times the space he was entitled to, because he
could not be made to move sidewise ? Has not
every one seen occasions when even a little train-
ing would have been a boon both to himself and
his neighbors ?

Talking of opening gates, one of the best bits
of practice is to unlock, open, and ride through a
common door and close and lock it after you
without dismounting. Let it be a door opening
towards you. If your horse will quickly get into
and stand steady in the positions necessary to en-
able you to lean over and do all this handily at
any door, gates will cease to have any terrors for
you.

Nor must you suppose that every schooled
horse is of necessity kept in his most skilled form
at all times. As few college graduates of twenty
years' standing can construe an ode of Horace,

86 Penelope.

though indeed they may understand the purport
and read between the lines as they could not un-
der the shadow of the elms of Alma Mater, so
Patroclus, for instance, is by no means as clever
in the intricate steps of his School performances
as he was when fresh from his education. But
the result is there ; and for all the purposes of
actual use in the saddle, the training he has had
at all times bears its fruit.

After this weary exordium of theory, Tom, for
which my apologies, let us turn to a bit of prac-
tice.

XXVI.

And first about the horse himself. If you buy
one, do so under such advice as to get soundness,
intelligence, courage, and good temper. Our
American horses, unless spoiled, generally have
all these in sufficient measure, and can be made
everything of. You have been exceptionally for-
tunate in your purchase of Penelope. She is
light gaited, not long and logy in her movements,
and carries her own head. She has remarkable
good looks, an inestimable quality after you get
performance ; but beware of the May-bird which
has good looks alone. She is fifteen three, nearly
as high at the rump, and with tail set on right
there, fine-bred, but with barrel enough to weigh
about a thousand and twenty pounds. She looks
like a thoroughbred hunter, Tom, every inch of

Driving Saddle Horses. 87

her. This is a good height and weight for you,
who ride pretty heavy for a youngster, and are apt
soon to run up to " twel' stun eight."

You say Penelope is six years old. From five
to eight is the best age, the nearer five the better.
An old horse does not supple so readily. And she
was well broken to harness .? A good harness
training is no harm to any horse, nor occasional
use in light harness, whatever pride one may take
in a horse which has never looked through a col-
lar. In fact, many hunters in the Old Country are
purposely used as tandem, or four-in-hand leaders
during the summer, to give them light work, and
bring them towards the season in firmer condi-
tion than if they had run at large and eaten their
heads off. It is only the pulling or holding back
of heavy weights which injures saddle gaits, and
this because a saddle beast should be taught to
keep his hind legs well under him, and remain
in an elastic equilibrium ; and dragging a load
brings about the habit of extending the legs too
much to the rear, while holding back gives a
habit of sprawling and stiffening which is sadly
at variance with a " collected " action.

XXVII.

You ask about dress. Wear anything which is
usual among riders. Enamel boots as now worn
are convenient to the constant rider, as the mud

88 Saddle and Bridle.

does not injure them as it does cloth, and water
at once cleanses them. But plain dark trousers,
cut a mere trifle longer than you wear them on
the street, and strapped under the feet, are ex-
cellent to ride in. If cut just right they are
the neatest of all gear for park riding in good
weather. The simpler your dress the better.
Gentlemen to-day dress in boots when riding
with ladies, and fashion, of course, justifies their
use now as it did fifty years ago. But within half
that term, in England, a man who would ride in
boots with a pretty horsebreaker considered trou-
sers de rigeur, if he was going to the Park with
his wife or daughters.

To saddle and bridle your horse, you must
know your own needs and his disposition and
mouth. But the English saddle and a bit and
bridoon bridle, such as you have, are the sim-
plest, and meet most wants, providing they fit
the back and mouth.

We do not have to suit such varying tempers
and mouths in this country as they do abroad.
Our horses are singularly tractable. It is rather
a stunning thing to be mounted on the fashion-
able type of horse who " won't stand a curb, you
know," — and there are some such, — but, as a
fact, ninety-nine American horses out of one
hundred will work well in a port and bridoon
bridle properly adjusted.

The Beginning, 89

Always buy good things. Cheap ones are
dear at any price. Your saddle should fit so
that when you are in it you can thrust your rid-
ing-whip under the pommel and to the cantle
along the horse's backbone ; otherwise you may
get sore withers. The bits should hang in the
mouth just above where a horse's tush grows.
Penelope's sex, you see, Tom, precludes her hav-
ing any.

XXVIII.

When you bought Penelope, she knew nothing
of saddle work, and I told you to ride her a few
times on a walk or a trot, anywhere and anyhow,
so as to get used to her, and her used to you, be-
fore you began to teach her anything. She had
presumably always been ridden to and from the
blacksmith's shop, and worked kindly under sad-
dle. You have got good legs, Tom, and any
man with average legs can keep his seat after a
fashion on a decently behaved horse. You were
afraid you could not sit Penelope when you first
bought her, and had not ridden for so long that
you felt strange in the saddle. So I advised you
to hire an old plug for a few rides until you
were sure you would feel at home when you
mounted her, meanwhile exercising her in har-
ness. The better part of valor will always be dis-
cretion, now as in Falstaff's time, while the best
of horses will get a bit nervous if kept long in

90 How to Mount.

a half-dark stable. Regular exercise is as essen-
tial to a horse as oil is to an engine, if either is
to work smoothly.

You ask me the proper way to mount. Let us
stop while you dismount, and I will show you the
usual way. It is simple work. Stand opposite
Nelly's near shoulder, a foot or so away from her,
and facing towards the cantle of your saddle.
Gather up your snaffle reins just tight enough
to feel, but not pull on her mouth, and seize a
part of her mane with your left hand. Insert
your toe in the stirrup, just as it hangs, using
your right hand if necessary. Then seize the
cantle of the saddle with your right hand, and
springing from your right foot, without touching
the horse's flank with your left toe, raise yourself
into the stirrup, pause a moment, and then throw
the leg across the horse, moving your right hand
away in season. If you were shorter, you might
have to spring from your foot before you could
touch the cantle. As in everything else, there
are other and perhaps better ways to mount, and
pages can be written upon the niceties of each
method. But the above suffices for the nonce.
You can choose your own fashion when you have
tried them all.

An active youngster, like yourself, should be
able to vault into the saddle without putting the
left foot into the stirrup at all. In all Continental

Holding the Reins. 91

gymnasiums, this is one of the usual exercises,
on a horse-block with imitation saddle, and is an
excellent practice. By all means learn it.

XXIX.

You do not seem to hold your reins handily,
Tom. Of all the methods of holding reins I pre-
fer the old cross-country way of a generation
back, still recommended, I was pleased to see, in
the very excellent article " Horse " of the edition
of the " Cyclopaedia Britannica " now publishing,
and I fancy yet much in vogue.

The School method is different ; but the School
requires that the curb and snaffle shall be used
for different indications or " aids " to convey the
rider's meaning to the horse, and not at the same
time. In ordinary saddle work it is generally
convenient to employ the reins together. Gather
your reins up with me. The near curb outside
little finger, near snaffle between little and third
fingers, off snaffle between third and middle, off
curb between middle and index, all four gathered
flat above index and held in place by thumb,
knuckles up. Or easier, take up your snaffle by
the buckle and pass the third finger of left hand
between its reins; then take up the curb and
pass the little, third, and middle fingers between
its reins. The snaffle reins, you see, are thus in-
side the curb reins, each is easily reached and

92 One and Both Hands.

distinguished and you can shift hold from left
hand to right, or vice versa, more readily than in
any other way, by merely placing one hand, with
fingers spread to grasp the reins, in front of the
other. By having the loop of each rein hanging
separate so that the free hand can seize it quickly,
either can be shortened or lengthened at will, or
they may be so together. Moreover, this hold
affords the easiest method of changing from one
to both hands and back.

For if you insert your right little finger be-
tween the off reins, and your third finger inside
the snafifle rein, and draw the off reins from your
left hand slightly, you have a very handy means
of using both hands, with the additional value
that you can either drop the right reins by eas-
ing the length of the left ones to equalize the
pressure on the horse's mouth ; or by grasping
the left reins with right middle finger over snaffle
and first finger over curb, you can shift to the
right hand entirely. When in this position you
can again use the left hand by inserting its fin-
gers in front of the right one and closing upon
the reins, as already indicated. In fact, without
lengthening the near reins, but merely by placing
the right hand in any convenient way on the off
ones, you may be ready to use both hands in en-
tirely proper fashion. And in this day of two-
handed riding, it is advisable to be able to follow
the fashion quickly.

" Riding the Bridled 93

For School airs, this also affords an easy way
of using separately curb and snaffle, as is often
necessary.

If you are riding with single reins, you will
place them on either side of third or little finger,
or embracing little, third, and middle fingers and
up under thumb in similar manner. A single
rein may be held in many ways.

With all other double-rein methods, except the
one described, you have to alter the position of
reins in shifting from hand to hand. With this one
the order of reins and fingers remains the same.

Any other system of holding the reins which
you prefer will do as well, if you become expert at
it. I have tried them all, from Baucher's down,
and have always reverted to what was shown me
thirty odd years ago.

Your curb chain should be looser than it is,
Tom. A horse needing a stiff curb is unsuited to
any but an expert rider, and must have a great
many splendid qualities to make up for this really
bad one. Some people like a mouth they can
hold on by, but they do not make fine horsemen.
Never ride on your horse's mouth, or, as they say,
" ride your bridle." Many men like a hunter who
" takes hold of you," but this won't do on the
road, if you seek comfort or want a drilled horse.
You see that Nelly keeps jerking at the curb.
Let out a link, at least. An untrained horse

94 What you Aim to Do.

seeks relief from the curb by poking out his
nose, the trained one by giving way to it and
arching his neck. It Is better at first only to ride
on your snaffle rein, leaving your curb rein rea-
sonably loose; or else you may use only a snaffle
bit and single rein for a while. But unless you
very early learn that your reins are to afford no
support whatever to your seat, you will never be
apt to learn It. Don't use a martingale unless
your horse Is a star-gazer, or else tosses his head
so as to be able to strike you. It tends to make
you lean upon the rein and confines your horse's

head.

XXX.

You have now been out a half-dozen times
with your new purchase, Tom, and you have man-
aged to get along much to your own satisfaction.
You have neither slipped off, nor has Penelope
misbehaved. But you are intelligent enough to
see that there is something beyond this for you
and her to learn. I do not know how ambitious
you are. If you want to make Nelly's forehand
and croup so supple that you can train her Into
the finest gaits and action, you must go to work
on the stable floor with an hour a day at least of
patient teaching, for a number of weeks. For
this purpose you must have a manual of Instruc-
tion, such as I have shown you, and quite a little
stock of leisure and particularly of good temper.

A Half-Training. 95

The ordinary English trainer thinks that a
good mouth may be made in two weeks, by strap-
ping a colt's reins to his surcingle for an hour or
two daily, and by longeing with a cavesson. But
excellent as cavesson work may be, this means
alone will by no means produce the quality of
mouth which the Baucher method will make, or
which you should aim to give to Nelly.

Still I know that you have but limited time,
Tom, and that you want your daily ride to edu-
cate both yourself and your mare. This can be
accomplished after a fashion ; but it is only what
the primary school is to the university, — good,
as far as it goes. The trouble with beginning to
supple a horse's neck when in motion is that you
ask him to start doing two things at once, that is,
move forward at command and obey your reins,
and he will be apt to be somewhat confused. He
will not as readily understand what you want
him to do, as if standing quiet and undisturbed.

With plenty of courage, Tom, Penelope seems
to have a very gentle disposition. Almost all of
our American horses have. They are not as apt
to be spoiled in the breaking -in as they are
abroad. And I fancy she is intelligent. You
should have no difficulty in training her, and in
teaching her a habit of obedience which she will
never forget.

It is all but an axiom that an unspoiled horse

96 Train by Geittle Means.

will surely do what he knows you want him to
do, unless he is afraid to do it, or unless, as is
generally the case, you yourself are at fault.
The difficulty lies in making him understand you.
Remember this, and keep your patience always.
If a horse is roguish, as he often will be, it is
only a moment's play, and he will at once get
over it, unless you make it worse by unnecessary
fault-finding. I generally laugh at a horse instead
of scolding him. He understands the tone if not
the words, and it turns aside the occasion for a
fight or for punishment.

Never invite a fight with a horse. Avoid it
whenever you can accomplish your end by other
means. Never decline it when it must come.
But either win the fight or reckon on having a
spoiled horse on your hands, who will never thor-
oughly obey you.

And remember that a horse who obeys from
fear is never as tractable, safe, or pleasant as one
who has been taught by gentle means, and with
whom the habit of obeying goes hand in hand
with love for his master and pleasure in serving
him. I do not refer to those creatures which
have already been made equine brutes by the stu-
pidity or cruelty of human brutes. One of these
may occasionally need more peremptory treat-
ment, but under proper tuition even such an one
needs it rarely.

Plate IX.

CLEAN ABOVE IT.

Penelope Fretting. 97

XXXI.

Let us have a trot, and see how Penelope
moves, and how you sit. You, Tom, will take
your pace from me. There is nothing more un-
horsemanlike and annoying than for a rider to
keep half a horse's length in front of his com-
panion. Your stirrup should be even with mine.
A gentleman can be a foot or two in front of a
lady, for safety and convenience, but men should
ride as they would walk, all but arm in arm.
Now you can see the effects of education. Pe-
nelope insists on trotting a twelve-mile gait, and
no wonder, for she has such fine, open action, that
a sharp gait is less effort to her than a slow one.
On the contrary, I, who, as the senior, have the
right to give the pace, am satisfied with two-
thirds that speed ; and Patroclus, who, as you
well know, can easily out-trot, or, I fancy, out-run
your mare, and would dearly like to try it, yields
himself to my mood without an ounce of pull or
friction. Look at his reins. They are quite loose.
Now look at yours. Nelly is pulling and fretting
for all she is worth, while you are working your
passage. Two miles like that will take three out
of her and five out of you. She will fume her-
self into a lather soon, while Pat will not have
turned a hair. She certainly is a candidate for
training. You appear to need all the strength of

98 Talk to your Horse.

your arms to pull her down to a walk, whereas a
simple turn of the wrist, or a low-spoken word,
should suffice.

By the way, always indulge in the habit of
talking to your horse. You have no idea of how
much he will understand. And if he is in the
habit of listening for your words, and of paying
heed to what you say, he will be vastly more obe-
dient as well as companionable. Patroclus and I
often settle very knotty questions on the road.
We think we helped elect Cleveland. And I
must confess that occasionally a passer-by fancies
that I am talking to myself, whereas, if he but
knew the meaning of Patroclus' lively ears, he
would see what a capital comrade I have, and
one, moreover, who, like one's favorite book, is
never impertinent enough to answer back, or flout
you with excessive wisdom. It is certainly a very
pleasant study to see how many words or phrases
a horse can learn the meaning of, and act intelli-
gently when he hears them.

XXXII.

What, then, shall you do first in the way of
education ? Well, let us see. As Nelly has been
broken to harness, she can probably only walk
and trot. You, yourself, seem to stick fairly well
to the saddle. But how about your own position?
Your leathers are a trifle long. They should be

Riding '''Home''' 99

of just such length that, when you are in the mid-
dle of the saddle, on your seat, not your crotch,
with the ball of your foot in the stirrups, your feet
are almost parallel with the ground, the heel a
trifle lower than the toes. Your toes are below
your heels, you see. You should be able to get
your heels well down when you settle into your
saddle. The old rule of having the stirrups just
touch the ankle-bone when the foot is hanging is
not a bad one. The arm measure is unreliable,
and physical conformation, as well as different
backed horses, often require, even in a sound
man, odd lengths of leathers.

You should not attempt to ride with your feet
" home " until you can keep your stirrup under
the ball of your foot without losing it, whatever
your horse may do ; and when you do ride
" home," you should occasionally change back to
the ball of your foot, so as to keep in practice.
Moreover, you can train a horse much more eas-
ily, riding with only the ball of the foot in the
stirrup, for you can use your legs to better advan-
tage. My disability obliges me to ride " home "
at all times, and I have always found it much
more difHcult to teach a horse the right leg indi-
cations than the left. I have to employ my whip
not infrequently, in lieu of my leg. Your stirrup
should be larger and heavier, for safety. I don't
like your fine, small stirrups ; and your saddle

lOO Use your Knees.

should have spring bars, which you should al-
ways keep from rusting out of good working or-
der. They have saved many a man's collar-bone.
Be in the habit of using your knees and thighs
alone for grip, though the closer you clasp the
saddle without getting your legs around the horse,
the better. In the leap, or with a plunging horse,
you may use the upper part of the calf, or as
much more as your spurs will allow you to use.
But of all equestrian horrors the worst is the too
common habit of constantly using the calves in-
stead of the knees to clasp the saddle-flaps. To
such an extent is this often carried by a tyro
(and no man gets beyond this stage who does it),
that you can see an angle of daylight between
the points where his thigh and calf touch the sad-
dle, showing that his knee, which ought to be
his main and constant hold, does not touch the
saddle at all. The stirrup-leathers, especially if
heavy, as they should be, often hurt the knee, if
you are new to the saddle, and perhaps are the
main inducement to this execrable habit. But
you must either get your knees hardened, or else
give up the saddle. Keep a steady lookout for
this. You will never ride if you don't use your
knees. If you do use them properly, your feet
will look after themselves. Ride with the flat of
the thigh and the knee-bone at all times close to
the saddle.

Sitting a Jog-Trot loi

Sit erect, but avoid rigidity. It is good prac-
tice to sit close, that is, without rising, on a slow
jog-trot. Let us try. Sit perfectly straight and
take the bumping. On a jog-trot, it is an unpar-
donable sin to lean forward at all. You will find
that shortly it does not bump you so much, and
by and by it will not at all. But don't lean back
either. That is the country bumpkin's preroga-
tive. Nelly is evidently easy enough, only she
has not been taught to curb her ambition. Noth-
ing shakes a man into the saddle better than this
same jog-trot. Nothing is more absurd than the
attempt to rise when the horse is only jogging,
or, as it were, the attempt to make your horse be-
gin to trot by beginning to rise. It looks like an
attempt to lift yourself up by your boot straps.
Teach him some other indication to start a trot.
It is useless to rise unless a horse is going at
least a six-mile gait.

Some School-riders taboo the jog, but all the
cavalry of the world use it ; it is the homeward
gait of the tired hunter, and it does teach a man
a good, easy, safe seat. It is true that a horse
who won't walk at speed, but who falls from a
slow walk into a jog whenever you urge him, is
a nuisance. Moreover, the uneducated jog is
neither a fashionable nor a desirable gait. But
a schooled jog, which the horse does under your
direction and control, is quite another thing,

I02 Position of Hands.

and a jog greatly relieves a tired horse. It
seems to be unjustly tabooed. Unless, then, you
are ultra-fashionable, make a habit of jogging
now and then. By this I mean jogging with
your horse " collected," so that you have not an
ounce of hold on his mouth, and he is still un-
der your absolute control, your seat meanwhile
being firm and unshaken. But never let the
horse jog of his own motion. That may spoil
his walk. Make him jog only when you want
him to do so, and when walking, do not let him
fall into a jog unbidden. The jog I mean should
be almost a parade gait ; too slow to rise to, but
still perfect in action, and so poised that from it
your horse can bound into any faster gait at
word.

Your hands are too high. They want to be
but a couple of inches above the pommel, better
lower than higher. A man whose reins wear out
the pigskin on his pommel is all right. A horse
who carries his head high needs lower hands.
Some low-headed horses require the hands to be
held a bit higher to stimulate the forehand.

It is difficult to say thus much without saying
a great deal more ; for this is but a hint of what
is essential to correct such a physical defect as
a low-carried head. But what I tell you will
whet your appetite for a thorough knowledge,
and this you will find in the books of Baucher's

^^ Riding the Bridled 103

followers. The use of snaffle and curb, each for
its best purpose, is very delicate.

Let me again repeat, of all things never hang
on your horse's mouth. You may have to do so
on Penelope's, or rather Penelope may hang on
your hands, till you get her suppled, but you
must try to do that soon. You don't want to be
a " three legged rider." If you cannot learn to
ride at any gait and speed smoothly and well,
with your reins so loose that you might as well
not have them in your hands, you will never do
anything but " ride the bridle."

This applies to your seat, not to Penelope. It
is not wise habitually to ride with reins too loose ;
you should always feel your horse's mouth. But
you can feel it without a tight rein. Good driv-
ing horses often pull. A good riding horse
should never do so.

Nelly seems to be sure-footed. If she is apt
to stumble, sell her. Your neck is worth more
than your pocket. By School training and its
consequent habit of keeping the hind legs well
under him, a stumbler will learn instinctively to
bring up the succeeding hind foot to the support
of the yielding fore foot, so as to save himself a
fall ; but you don't want an imperfect horse, Tom.
If Nelly can trot without stumbling, it is excel-
lent practice for you to tie the reins in a knot on
her neck, and to ride along the road without

I04 Guiding the Horse.

touching them. When you feel as secure this
way as any other, your seat is strong. You do
not want to do this en evidence. But get off on
the country roads and practice it. This is one
advantage of a careful riding-master and a good
school ; a pupil is taught the seat apart from and
before the uses of the reins.

XXXIII.

As I think you have already mastered all that
I have told you, you may begin to teach Penel-
ope a bit. But remember that, as you are both
intelligent, she will be teaching you at the same
time. I notice that you have to use two hands
to guide your mare, and I presume you want to
learn some better way, for however necessary two
hands may occasionally be, a horse must at times
be managed by one. There are three methods of
guiding a horse under saddle. The simplest, and
the one requiring the least education, is the same
which you are using, and which is the common
way of driving, by holding the rein or reins of
each side in one hand, and by pulling rein on the
side you wish Nelly to turn to. It is possible to
guide this way with one hand by a suitable turn
of the wrist, but unless the horse is well collected,
as few of our horses nowadays are, it is a poor
reliance in any unusual case. The next method
is guiding by the neck, by which the horse is

One Hand versus Two. 105

made to turn to the right if you draw the rein
across or lay it upon the left side of his neck, and
vice versa. The third method combines the two
others, and the horse obeys either indication. It
requires -the highest art in man and beast, and is
superb in results when learned. The animal may
be guided by the bit with the reins held in one
hand, applying the pressure by the turn of the
wrist, or may be turned by the neck while the bit
is used to lighten one or other side. But this
requires a hand and mouth of equal delicacy,
and a horse always in a state of equilibrium.

You will need only the first two to begin with,
and Nelly already knows the first.

Most horses now and then require you to use
both hands, and School-riding calls for their use
in the more difficult feats. But an agreeable sad-
dle beast should guide by the neck readily at all
times. Stonehenge calls this a " highly desirable
accomplishment," but it is really only the begin-
ning of the alphabet of the horse's education ; and
indeed in the School airs, though both hands be
used, the forehand is constantly thrown to one or
the other side by the neck pressure, the direct
tension of the rein being used to give the horse
quite a different indication at the same moment.

Moreover, you will not always be able to de-
vote two hands to Nelly. You may need one of
them for something else. It would be embarrass-

io6 One Hand and Two Legs.

ing not to be able to use your whip or crop, or to
button your glove, or to take off your hat, and at
the same time to turn a corner or avoid a team.
I have often ridden with people who so entirely
relied upon both hands, that they had to draw
rein for so simple a thing as the use of their
handkerchief, lest their horse should fly the track
while their right hand was so engaged. And
while I am to a certain extent an advocate for
the use of two hands, I cannot agree with the
habit of the day of so constantly employing two
that the horse and rider both lose the power of
doing satisfactory work with one.

By all means teach Nelly to guide by the neck.
When you have done this, you may resort to both
hands again whenever you desire. And the habit
of using both hands is certainly more apt to keep
your shoulders, and hence your seat straight.
But a horse who cannot be guided with one hand
under all but the most exceptional conditions is
not fit for saddle work on the road. In the more
intricate paces of the School, indeed, the soldier
uses but one hand ; and though often more deli-
cate hints can be imparted to a horse's mind by
two, yet all except the greatest performances of
the manege can be accomplished with one, and a
horse who is unable to rehearse perfectly all the
road gaits and movements with the indications of
one hand and two heels is sadly lacking in the
knowledge he should boast.

Guiding by the Neck. 107

You very naturally ask how this is to be
taught. It is by no means difficult. Have you
never noticed a groom riding a horse in a halter .?
Any steady horse can be so ridden. The halter
rope is usually on the left side of the neck be-
cause the man has it in his hand when he jumps
on, and he guides the horse by a pull on the
halter rope if he wants him to turn to the left,
and by laying the rope upon and pulling it across
the neck pretty well up if he wants him to turn to
the right. Now you will notice that if you hold
the reins far up on Nelly's neck, half way from
withers to ears, and pull them across the left
(near) side of her neck, she will, after a little un-
certainty, be apt to turn to the right, although
the pull is on the left side of the bit. Try it and
see. There, — she has done it, after some hesi-
tation. And she did it because she felt that her
head was being forced to the right and she very
naturally followed it. The reverse will occur if
you will pull the reins across the right (off) side
of the neck. Some horses seize this idea very
quickly, and it is only a matter of practice to
keep them doing the same thing as you gradually
bring the reins farther and farther down the neck
till they lie where they should be, near the with-
ers. If Nelly will thus catch the idea, a week or
ten days will teach her a good deal, and in a
month she will guide fairly well by the neck ; —

io8 Riding in a Circle,

after which, practice makes perfect. If she had
not seemed to catch the idea, and had turned the
other way, it would have been because the pull
on the bit impressed her mind rather than the
pressure on the neck acting in the opposite way.
Under such circumstances you should, when you
press the rein on the near side of her neck, take
hold of the off rein also and force her to turn to
the right, trying to make the neck pressure a
little more marked than that on the bit. A horse
quickly learns to appreciate the difference be-
tween the direct pull of the rein on the bit and
the indirect one made across the neck. None of
the neat movements of the manege can be exe-
cuted unless a horse has learned absolutely to dis-
tinguish between an indication to turn, and one
which is meant to lighten one side in order to
prepare for a School movement, or to enable him
to lead or exhibit pronounced action with that
side.

At first you had perhaps better teach Penelope
to guide only one way by the neck, using the
rein alone for the other turn. But you can deter-
mine this by her intelligence. If there is any
place where you can ride in an irregular circle or
quadrangle, you can, after Nelly gets used to
turning in a certain direction at the corners, press
the reins on the opposite side of her neck as she
is about to turn, so that she may get to associate

Platb X.

TAKIXG-OP^F AT WATER.

1

A Rigid Neck. 109

this pressure with the movement in the direction
away from it. This is the way horses learn in a
riding-school. Or if she is going towards home
and knows the corners she has to turn, do not let
her make them of her own accord, but hold her
away from them until you give her the neck
pressure. Or you can zig-zag along the road if
you are in a quiet place where people will not
think that you are toque, or that your mare has
the staggers. It will thus not be long before
Nelly gets the idea, and the mere idea, once
caught, is quickly worked into a habit. Some-
times I have got a horse to guide passably well
by the neck in a day. Oftener, it takes a week
or two, while delicacy comes by very slow de-
grees.

XXXIV.

When you have got Nelly to the point where
she guides fairly well by the neck, what next ?

It is evident that the muscles of your mare's
neck are rather rigid, for she carries it straight,
though her crest is well curved. From this rigid-
ity springs that resistance to the bit which she so
constantly shows. A neck which arches easily
means, as a rule, obedience to it. It is extremely
rare that a horse will arch his neck, except when
very fresh, so as to bring his mouth to the yield-
ing position and keep it there, of his own volition ;
and then he is apt to pull on your hands. You

no An Arched Neck.

must not suppose that an arched neck means
that the horseman is worrying his beast to make
him appear proud or prance for the purpose of
showing off. It is precisely this which a good
horseman never does. He always uses his bits
gently. It is cruelty, as well as ruin to the horse's
mouth, to hold him by the curb until his neck
tires, and he leans upon it, held suspended by the
equal torture of the chain and the aching muscles.
A horse never should pull on a curb. If your
hands are light, the curb rein may be loose and
still the horse's head be in its proper position, that
is, about perpendicular. The well-trained horse,
without the slightest effort, arches his neck to the
curb or snaffle alike, and keeps it so. It is only
when his rider releases it, or chooses to let him
" have his head " that he takes it. Often, in fact,
a horse will not do so when you give him the
chance. Patroclus here will get tired out, cer-
tainly completely tire me out, long before his bit
becomes irksome. When trotting, or when gal-
loping across the fields or in deep snow, I am
often apt to let him carry his head as he chooses
on account of the change or the extra exertion.
But with his well-suppled neck I always feel cer-
tain that the slightest intimation of the bit will
bring his head in place instead of meeting resist-
ance. And he generally seems to prefer to bring
his head well into the bit, so, as it were, to estab-

What an Arched Neck Means. 1 1 1

lish agreeable relations with you. I often notice
that he feels unsteady if I give him his head too
much. And when tired, he seems to like the en-
couragement given by light and lively hands all
the more.

The first thing, then, to do is to get Penelope's
neck suppled. This means that the naturally
rigid muscles of the neck shall be by proper ex-
ercises made so supple as to allow the mare to
bring her head to the position where there can
be a constant " give and take " between your
hands and her mouth. The usual outward sign
of such suppleness is an arched neck, though as
occasionally an habitual puller will arch his neck
naturally, this is not an infallible sign. And some
horses, especially thoroughbreds, however good
their wind, will roar if you too quickly bring their
heads in. This is because the wind-pipe of such
horses is compressed too much by arching the
neck. Thoroughbreds on the turf are wont to
stick their noses out while running, because this
affords them the best breathing power at very
high speed. This habit becomes hereditary, and
among them there are not a few who cannot
readily be brought in by the bit. Sometimes, ex-
cept as a feat, you can never supple such necks.
Oftener, it only needs more time and patience, —
in other words a slower process. A limber-necked
thoroughbred has, however, the most delightful of

112 Walking.

mouths, except for the fact that he seems occasion-
ally to draw or yield almost a yard of rein, owing
to the length of his neck, and your hands have
to be watched accordingly. If he has such a
neck, the only safety, if he is high-strung, is never
to let him beyond the hand.

The result of the suppling of the neck is a soft
mouth under all conditions. How shall you be-
gin to supple Nelly's neck, you ask, without the
long process of the Schools .?

You cannot perfectly, but you may partially do
this under saddle. Whenever you are on a walk
you may, as a habit, let your horse have his head,
and encourage him to keep at his best gait. A
dull walker is a nuisance. A little motion of the
hands or heels and an occasional word will keep
him lively and at work, and get him into the
habit of walking well, if he has enough ambition.
The School-rider keeps his horse " collected " on
the walk at all times, and though the steps are
thus shortened, they become quicker and more
springy, and the speed is not diminished. I do
either way, as the mood takes me, for though I
incline to the method of the School-riders, I do
not think that it hurts a horse to have entire free-
dom now and then.

Some amblers are slow walkers, but the five-
mile amble takes the place of the rapid walk, and
is often more agreeable. Few horses walk more

Beginning the Flexions. 113

than three and a half miles an hour. A four-mile
walk is a good one. Exceptionally, you may reach
the ideal five miles. I once knew a horse in
Ohio who walked (and not a running walk either,
but a square " heel and toe " walk) six miles in
an hour, on wagers. But our confab, Tom, often
gets too diffuse. Let us go on with our lesson.

XXXV.

Here we are quietly walking along the road.
Suppose you draw up the reins a bit, the curb
somewhat the more. Nelly will at once bring up
her head, and very naturally stick out her nose in
the endeavor to avoid the pressure of the curb
chain. At the same time, as you see, she will
shorten her steps. Don't jerk or worry her, but
still exert a gentle pressure on the curb, and keep
up a slight vibrating movement of the hands,
speaking to her kindly. In a moment or two,
she will arch her neck, and the bit will hang
loosely in her mouth. There, you see, her nose
comes down, and a handsome head and neck she
has ! Now pat her, and speak caressingly to her,
and after a few seconds release her head. When
these exercises are done on the stable floor, the
use of the snaffle will accomplish the same result,
and this is very desirable. But if you begin
these flexions on the road you must use the curb,
because Nelly now understands the snaflle to be

114 Champing the Bit.

for another purpose. The use of the curb Is apt
to lower a horse's head, and with some horses too
much. The snaffle may be employed to correct
this low carriage, but this use of it involves more
than I can explain to you now. If Nelly's head
gets too low, raise your hands a bit.

Try it over again, and each time prolong the
period of holding her head in poise. But never
hold it so long that her neck will ache and she
begin to lean upon the bit. If she should do so
before you release her head, play gently with the
rein for an instant to get her back to the soft
mouthing of the bit, caress her, and then release
her head. This is on the principle that you
should always have your way with a horse, and
not he his. And kindness alone accomplishes
this much more speedily and certainly than se-
verity. If the occasion ever comes when you can-
not have your way with Nelly, give a new turn to
the matter by attracting her attention to some-
thing else, so as not to leave on her mind the
impression that she has resisted you.

Notice two things, Tom, while Nelly is thus
champing her bit. She has an almost impercep-
tible hold of your hands and her gait is shorter
and more elastic. This has the effect of a semi-
poised position, from which she can more readily
move into any desired gait than from the ex-
tended looseness of the simple walk. This is

Leaning on the Curb, 115

one step towards what horsemen call being " in
hand," or " collected ; " and grooms, " pulled to-
gether," though indeed the " pulling together "
of the groom but very distantly approaches the
fine poise of the Schools.

Of all means of destroying a good mouth, to
allow the horse to lean upon the curb is the sur-
est. Avoid this by all means. But so long as
Nell will bring in her head and play with the bit,
keep her doing so at intervals. After a week or
two she will be ready to walk quite a stretch with
her head in position, and you will both of you
have gained something in the way of schooling
her mouth and your hands. You can then try
her on a trot, and if you can keep your seat with-
out holding on by the reins, she will learn to do
the same thing at this gait too, and later at the
canter and the gallop. But unless your own seat
is firm and your hands are light, you will only
be doing her future education an injury. Every
twitch on her sensitive mouth, occasioned by an
insecure seat or jerky hands, will be so much lost.
Moreover, your curb chain must neither be too
long nor too short. If too long, Nelly will not
bring down her head at all. If too short, it will
worry her unnecessarily. You can judge of it by
her willingness gradually to accustom herself to
it without jerking her head or resisting it, and
without lolling her tongue.

1 1 6 Suppling the Croup.

This suppling of Nelly's neck which you will
give her on her daily ride is only of the muscles
governing the direct up and down motion of the
head and neck. You are not overcoming the lat-
eral rigidities. This requires stable exercises. If
you have leisure for these (and you very likely
will make some when you find the strides in com-
fort and elegance Nelly is making), you will buy
one of the manuals I have told you about. What
you have taught her, however, is excellent so far
as it goes, and is time well employed. It will
serve its purpose upon the road, if it does not suf-
fice for the more perfect education.

XXXVI.

The next step will be for you to try to supple
the croup or hind-quarters of your mare. The
two things can go on together, though it is well
to get the forehand fairly suppled before begin-
ning on the croup. The flexions of the croup
are fully as important, if not more so, than those
of the forehand, and in their proper teaching lies
the root of your success. If you wear spurs, you
should be absolutely sure you will never touch
Nelly with them by accident. Spurs need not to
be severe in any event. It is uselessly cruel to
bring the blood, except in a race, where every
ounce of exertion must be called for. Spurs in
training or riding should never be used for pun-

The Old and New Manege. 117

ishment. They will be too essential in convey-
ing your meaning to Penelope for you to throw-
away their value in bad temper. The horse should
learn that the spur is an encouragement and an
indication of your wishes, and should be taught
to receive its attack without wincing or anger.

The old habit of the manege was to force all
the weight of the horse, by the power of a severe
curb bit, back upon his haunches, and oblige him
to execute all the airs in a position all but poised
upon his hind legs. The modern dispensation
endeavors to effect better results by teaching the
animal to be constantly balanced upon all four
legs, and, by having his forces properly distrib-
uted, to be in a condition to move any of them at
the will of his rider in any direction, without dis-
turbing this balance. Moreover, the element of
severity has been eliminated from training alto-
gether.

Suppose, then, that you are walking Nelly and
are holding her head in poise. Now bring your
legs gently together, so as to slightly touch her
sides. You will see that she at once moves
quickly towards the bit. Here she must find her-
self held in check by it. The result of the two
conditions will be that she will get her hind legs
somewhat more under her than usual. It is just
this act, properly done, which produces the equi-
librium desired. When a horse is what is termed

1 1 8 A Fine Balance.

" collected," or " in hand," he has merely brought
his hind feet well under him, and has yielded his
mouth to your hands in such a way that he can
quickly respond to your demands. This he can-
not do when he is in an open or sprawling posi-
tion.

It were better to teach Nelly this gathering of
the hind legs under her by certain preliminary
exercises on foot; but you can by patient trial
while mounted accomplish a great part of the
same result. And between bit to restrain her
ardor and spur to keep her well up to it, the
mare will get accustomed to a position of equilib-
rium from which she can, when taught, instantly
take any gait, advance any foot, or perform any
duty required. She will be really in the condi-
tion of a fine scale which a hair's weight will in-
stantly affect.

Do not suppose that bit and spur are to be
used harshly. On the contrary, the bit ought to
play in her mouth loosely, and with the trained
horse the barest motion of the leg towards the
body sufiBces. The spur need very rarely touch
her flank. The delicacy of perception of the
schooled horse is often amazing. But the co-
efficient of a balanced horse is a rider with firm
seat and light hands. Either is powerless with-
out the other. Moreover, a generous and intelli-
gent beast, reasonably treated, learns the duty

The Horse enjoys Training. 119

prescribed to him without the least friction. To
respond to a kindly rider's wants seems to be a
pride and a pleasure to him instead of a task.

Among the most agreeable incidents of horse-
training is the evident delight which the horse
takes in learning, the appreciation with which he
receives your praise, and the confiding willing-
ness with which he performs airs requiring the
greatest exertion, and often a painful application
of the spur, without any idea of resistance or re-
sentment, even when his strength, endurance,
intelligence, and good temper are taxed to the
severest degree. I have sometimes wondered at
a patience, which I myself could never have ex-
hibited, in a creature which could so readily re-
fuse the demands made upon him, as well as at
the manifest pleasure he will take in the simple
reward of a gentle word.

There is much difference in the nomencla-
ture of horse-training. Unless one needs to be
specific, as in describing the methods of the
Haute Ecole, " in hand " and " collected " are fre-
quently used interchangeably. But they should
really be distinct in meaning, " in hand " being
the response to the bit, " collected," the response
to bit and legs, and " in poise," a very close posi-
tion of equilibrium, preceding the most difficult
movements of the School.

Now, in order to get Penelope accustomed to

1 20 Horses at Liberty.

respond to the pressure of the legs, you must
practice bringing your legs towards her flanks
while her head is well poised, at frequent inter-
vals. Whenever she responds by bringing her
hind legs under her — and you will notice when
she does so by her greater elasticity and more ac-
tive movement — speak a good word to her, and
keep her gathered in this way only so long as she
can comfortably remain so, gradually prolonging
the terms during which you hold her thus " col-
lected." You will find that her step will soon be-
come lighter and the speed of her response to
your own movements a great contrast to the slug-
gishness of the horse moving his natural gait in
the saddle. Her carriage will begin to show the
same equilibrium in which the practiced fencer
stands " in guard," or more properly, it will show
that splendid action of the horse at liberty which
he never exhibits in the restraint of the saddle,
except when trained.

Whoever has watched a half-dozen fine horses
just turned loose from the stall into a pretty pad-
dock, will have noticed that, in their delighted
bounds and curvetings, each one will perform his
part with a wonderful grace, ease, and elegance of
action. You may see the passage, piaffer, and
Spanish trot, and even the passage backwards,
done by the untrained horse of his own playful
volition, urged thereto solely by the exuberance

Plate XI.

DOING IT HANDILY.

Study the Art. 121

of his spirits. Under saddle he will not do this,
unless taught by the methods of the School. But
so taught, he will perform all these and more,
with readiness and evident satisfaction to him-
self.

I must again impress upon you, Tom, that for
perfect success, even in little things, you will
need vastly more careful training than this ; and
that what I am discussing with you is but a very
partial substitute for the higher education. I am
indeed sorry to feel tied down to such simple in-
struction. But I want to tell you just enough to
lead you to experiment for yourself, and to catch
sufficient of the fascination of the art to study it
thoroughly. I am, however, anxious that you
should by no means understand me to say that
you can, by any such simple means as I shall have
detailed to you, perfect the education of your
mare. You can improve her present condition
vastly, and make her light and handy compared
to what she naturally is. But the best results in-
volve far other work.

XXXVII.

You tell me that Nelly can only trot and walk,
and you want to teach her the canter and hand
gallop. Many horses will naturally fall into a
canter if you shake the reins; but some who
come of trotting stock will not do so without con-

122 The Cmiter.

siderable effort; and still such a horse is often
the best one to buy. Now the easiest way to get
Nelly into a canter, if she persists in trotting, is
to push her beyond her speed, for which purpose
you should select a soft piece of ground. So
soon as she has broken into a gallop, unless
she has been trained to settle back into a trot,
you can readily slow up without changing her
gait. If it has been attempted to train her as
a trotter, you will have harder work to do this.
But there is a little vibrating movement of the
hands, sometimes called " lifting," which tends
to keep a horse cantering, just as a steady pull
keeps him trotting. This movement is in the
little what the galloping action of a horse is in
the great. The hands move very slightly for-
ward and upward, and pass back again on an
under line.

Apparently, Nelly has been broken in the usual
way, for she trots naturally on a steady rein or
on the snafBe. Now, you will find that a moving
rein or the curb is apt to break her trot, and
make her do something else, — either prance, or
trot with high unsettled steps, or canter. It is
for your own hands, when she gets to the canter,
to hold her there. This may take you some time,
but you can certainly do it by repeated trials.
Having accomplished it, you may, between curb
bit and spurs, both gently used, mind you, gradu-

A Slow Canter, 123

ally teach her to carry her head properly at this
pace, and get her haunches well under her ; and it
will give you pleasure to notice how much more
natural it is for her to come " in hand " than on
the trot. As the canter is the natural gait of the
horse, you will find Nelly soon keep to it if she
understands that you so desire. But remember
that you should canter or gallop habitually only
on soft ground. Hard roads soon injure the fore
feet and fetlock joints if a horse is constantly can-
tered or galloped upon them, because the strides
are longer and the weight comes down harder,
and always more upon the leading fore foot than
upon the other. Moreover, the canter with the
hind legs well gathered is apt to be somewhat of
a strain to the houghs of the horse unless it is
properly — rhythmically — performed, and unless
the animal is gradually broken in by proper flex-
ions.

But to canter is one thing. You have yet to
teach Penelope to canter on either foot at will,
leading off with left or right and changing foot in
motion. This is quite another matter, and you
will find that it will take some time and a vast
deal of patience in both of you.

Let us suppose that you have brought Nell
down to a fairly slow canter. Until you can,
without effort to her or you, rein her down to
quite a slow one, she does not know the rudi-

1 24 Ladys Trot versus Canter.

ments of the gait. To canter properly, she must,
without resistance, pull, or fret, come down to a
canter quite as slow as a fast walk, even slower,
and not show the least attempt to fall into a jog ;
all this while so poised that she can bound into
a gallop at the next stride. Any plug can run.
Few of the saddle horses you meet on the road
seem to canter slowly, and yet it is one of the
most essential of gaits and a great relief from a
constant trot, especially for a lady.

It may perhaps look more sportsmanlike — I
don't like to use the word " horsey " — for a lady
always to trot ; but no lady, apart from this, be-
gins to look as well upon the trot as when sitting
the properly timed park canter of a fresh and
handsome horse. Moreover, it requires vastly
less art to ride the trot usually seen with us than
to bring a high-couraged horse down to a slow
parade canter and keep him there, not to dilate
upon the gloriously invigorating and luxurious
feeling of this gait when executed in its perfec-
tion.

Some lazy horses find that they can canter as
easily as walk and nearly as slowly, but this dis-
jointed, lax-muscled progress is a very different
performance from the proud, open action of the
generous horse, whose stride is so vigorous that
you feel as if he had wings, but who curbs his
ardor to your desires, and with the pressure of a

Changing Lead in Motion. 125

silken thread on the bit will canter a five-mile

gait.

XXXVIII.

You have probably noticed that Nelly some-
times canters with one shoulder forward and
sometimes with the other. Almost all sound
horses will change lead of their own accord, but
not knowing why. When a horse shies at a
strange object, or hops over anything in his path,
or gets on new ground, or changes direction, he
will often do this. If a horse does not frequently
change, it is apt to be on account of an unsound
foot, hough, or shoulder, which makes painful or
difficult the lead he avoids. But occasionally a
sound horse will always lead with the same leg,
until taught to change. For a lady the canter is
generally easier with the right shoulder leading,
and some horses are much easier with one than
the other lead. In fact, on the trot, many horses
are easier when you rise with the off than when
you rise with the near foot, or vice versa; and
some writers have said that a horse leads with
one or other foot in trotting. But as the trot
should be a square and even gait, the peculiarity
in question is owing to excess of muscular action
in one leg and not to anything approaching the
lead in the canter or the gallop.

It is possible to teach a horse to start with
either or to change lead in the canter without

126 Importance of Croup Flexions.

more flexing of the croup than you can give him
on the road; but it is worth your while to put
Nelly through some exercises which I will explain
to you. It will save time in the end. Their
eventual object is so to supple the croup as to
render the hind-quarters subject to the rider's will,
and absolutely under the control of the horse as
directed by him. The flexions of the croup are
in reality more important than those of the fore-
hand. Unless a horse's hind-quarters are well
under him and so thoroughly suppled as to obey
the slightest indication of the rider's leg, he is
lacking in the greatest element of his education,
if he is to be made a School-horse. At the same
time a supple croup and a rigid forehand cannot
work in unison. Both should be elastic in equal
degree.

For the purpose of beginning the croup flex-
ions, you can best use the stable floor, or other
convenient spot, say after mounting as you start,
or before dismounting as you return from your
ride, or, better, both. And this is what you
should do.

Suppose you are standing on the stable floor,
mounted. Any other place will do, but you want
to be where you are quite undisturbed. Bring
Nelly in hand by gathering up the reins quietly,
so as not to disturb her equanimity or her posi-
tion. Perhaps you had better hold the reins in

Side Step of Hind Feet. 127

both hands for these exercises. At all times, in-
deed, it is well that a horse should be kept ac-
quainted with the feel of the two hands. In
many respects, and for many purposes, I am an
advocate of two hands in riding. Do not misun-
derstand me on this point. My plea is for such
education that one hand may suffice for all needs,
when the other can be better employed than with
the reins ; but I myself often use both my hands,
perhaps even half the time.

Nelly being collected, gently press one foot
towards her flank, if need be till the spur touches
her. She will naturally move away from it by a
side step with her hind feet. You should have
kept her head so well in hand that she will not
have moved her fore feet. So soon as she makes
this one side step, stop and caress her. Try once
more with the same foot. Same result, and you
will again reward her with a kind word. Do not
at first try to make her take two steps consecu-
tively. If you do so, she may, having failed to
satisfy you with one step, and imagining that you
want something else, try to step towards the spur
instead of away from it, and you will have thus
lost some ground. A horse argues very simply,
and if one course does not seem to comply with
his rider's will, he almost always and at once tries
the other. After a few days, you will find that
Nelly will side step very nicely, one or two steps

128 Circling with Forehand and Croup,

at a time, and before long she will do so in either
direction. You cannot, however, consider her as
perfect until she can handily complete the circle,
with the opposite fore foot immovably planted, in
either direction at will, and without disturbing
her equilibrium. But this is much harder to do,
and if you propose to give Nelly a college educa-
tion you must first qualify yourself as professor.

You should now at the same time test how well
you have taught Penelope to guide by the neck.
If you will use the pressure of your legs judi-
ciously, so as to prevent her from moving her
hind feet at all, you should be able to describe
part of a circle about them by such use of the
reins as to make her side step with the fore feet.
When she can take two or three steps with fore
or hind feet to either side quickly, and at will,
keeping the hind or fore feet in place, you have
made a very substantial gain in her training.

There can be, of course, only one pivot foot. It
is the one opposite the direction in which you are
moving the croup or forehand. But to teach
Nelly to use the proper pivot foot you must begin
much more carefully, and it is perhaps not neces-
sary, if you aspire only to train her for road use,
to be so particular.

Properly speaking, you ought about this time
to give Nelly a little side suppling of the neck, so
as to make the parts respond readily to your will.

Side Flexions of Neck. 1 2 9

This is done first on foot, by gently turning the
mouthpiece of the curb bit in a horizontal plane,
so as to force her head to either side and make
her arch her neck, without allowing her to shift
feet. Later, it is done by drawing one curb rein
over her neck so as to bring her head sidewise
down towards the shoulder, while steadying her
with a less marked pressure on the other rein.
To do this properly, the Baucher diagrams, or a
longer description, would be useful. When the
neck is in this exercise perfectly flexed, she will be
looking to the rear. With some little practice
Nelly will thus readily, at call, bring her head way
round to the saddle-flap, with neck arched, and
mouthing her bit. Later still, you can practice
this flexion mounted, by holding both reins, and
pulling a trifle more strongly on one curb than
on the other, and steadying her by voice and leg
to prevent her from moving. This exercise will
make it physically easier for Nelly by and by to
respond to your demands, for her neck will be flex-
ible enough for her to hold her head in any de-
sired position without undue effort. And the
same thing can be done in motion, if this is not
too rapid.

As already said, the circular movement de-
scribed (termed a pirouette about the hind, and a
reversed pirouette about the fore feet) should be
made on one absolutely unmoved fore or hind

1 30 The Pirouettes and Traverse.

foot as pivot. For, plainly, both feet cannot act
as one pivot without twisting the legs. This pir-
ouette is really a "low pirouette," the pirouette
proper being a movement by the horse poised on
his hind legs alone, describing the circle with fore
legs in the air, which is a vastly finer performance.

It will suffice for you, though, Tom, if Nelly
will make the pirouette, simple or reversed, with-
out substantially shifting the position of the two
pivot feet. But you must remember that if you
start with a half-and-half education, it is more dif-
ficult to perfect the training than if you start in
a more systematic manner ; and I do not pretend
that these are the proper, but only easy methods.

It is by the union of the side steps of forehand
and croup, the former always a trifle in advance,
that a horse is taught to " traverse," that is, to
move sideways at a walk, trot, or gallop. But the
traverse is a School gait rarely needed on the
road, and a horse may be trained to entire use-
fulness without being able to traverse, as a gait,
if he can willingly make a few quick side steps
in either direction. Moreover, to properly trav-
erse, a horse should be taught the passage, which
is a gait in which the feet are raised much higher,
by the inducement of the spur and the indication
of the rein, than the horse would naturally lift
them. The passage is put to use in very many
of the airs of the manege.

Teaching the Lead, 131

XXXIX.

To revert now to the canter, for which the
pirouettes are preparations. There are two or
three ways of teaching a horse to lead with either
foot, but the best way is to begin with the flex-
ions which I have just described to you, and the
more perfect these are, the easier and quicker the
progress, and the more satisfactory the result.

If you have not patience to wade through all
these, you may try the following plan, which is
founded on the natural instincts and balance of
the horse, but for the execution of which, with
your load on his back, he has not been prepared.

A horse will lead with the off foot most readily
if he is going round a circle to the right ; with
the near foot, if circling to the left. In other
words, the foot which will quickest sustain his
weight against the centrifugal motion is the one
which is planted first, that is, the foot not lead-
ing. The way a horse is taught in a riding-
school to lead with either foot is by associating
the proper indication to do so with the lead he
naturally takes as he canters around the right or
left of the ring, or changes direction in what are
called the voltes in teaching pupils. But I have
seen many horses who would do this very readily
inside school walls, who were very stupid or re-
fractory on a straight bit of road. I think this is

132 '"'False''' Canter.

universally true, in fact, and that is why I recom-
mend road teaching whenever practicable.

It cannot be alleged that every horse will al-
ways use the proper foot in the lead. A horse
unused to cantering with a rider's weight upon
his back may do all kinds of awkward things
which at liberty, or when trained, he will not at-
tempt to do. But the above way of leading is the
natural thing, and that which a horse generally
does when at liberty ; and it is not hard to induce
him to do what comes naturally to him, nor by
practice to strengthen the habit.

The action of the legs of the leading side is
higher in the canter and the gallop than that of
the other pair. A horse is said to be " false " in
his canter or gallop if he turns with a wrong lead,
that is, if he turns to the right until he alters his
lead to the right shoulder, unless he is already so
leading, or vice versa. This is true of sharp
turns, which may indeed cause a dangerous fall if
" false," but a horse can safely make turns with a
long radius and good footing without altering his
lead, and this is often convenient to be done.
But if the ground is slippery, it is a risk to turn
a sharp corner with a wrong lead. I have often
seen men punish a horse for slipping at such a
turn, when it was solely owing to the false lead
that he did so ; and the false lead was either the
lack of education in the horse or the rider, or

Plate XII.

A TWENTY-FOOT LEAP.

Cantering in a Circle. 133

both. Sometimes a horse will be leading with
one shoulder, and following with the alternate
hind leg. He is then said to be " disunited," or
"disconnected." The leg or spur, applied on
either side to bring him to the proper lead, will
soon correct this error, as it is equally disagree-
able to horse and rider, and it is a relief to both
to change it.

Now, acting on this theory of the horse having
a natural lead, suppose you canter Nelly about in
a circle small enough to induce her to use the
proper leg in the lead. A circle fifty feet in di-
ameter will do. At the same time apply a con-
stant but slight pressure of your leg on the side
opposite her leading shoulder. She will by and
by associate this pressure with what you want her
to do. Stick to one direction long enough, say
three or four days, to impress the idea on her
mind, and she will be rather apt to keep it in
memory. Then try the other direction with op-
posite pressure, and you will gradually get the
opposite result.

Again, a horse canters best with off shoulder
leading, if moving along the side of a hill which
slopes up to his right, and vice versa. Thus, if
you keep on the left side of most roads, where
the grade slopes towards the gutter, you will find
that Nelly will lead best with her right shoulder.
This is for the same reason. She wishes to plant

134 Cantering on a Slope.

quickest that foot which will keep her from slip-
ping down hill. If she is on the right of the
road she will lead best with the left shoulder.
She will, perhaps, not do this as readily as on the
circle, but she will be apt to do it. If you should
watch a horse in the circus ring, you would notice
that this is apparently not true. But the slanting
path of the circus ring is really not on a slant at
all, when we calculate the centrifugal force of the
motion around so small a circle. It is as if a
horse were moving on a horizontal plane, for he is
really perpendicular to the slanting path ; and its
tipped position is governed by the same mathe-
matical rule as the road-bed of a railroad curve.

You may utilize this slanting instinct also in
the same fashion as the circle first mentioned for
getting the elementary idea into Nelly's head that
pressure on one side means leading with the op-
posite shoulder. Moreover, the side of the road,
which is the slope most handy, has the additional
advantage of being generally the softest cantering
ground.

There is an upward play of the rein, which
can be explained only to the student who has ad-
vanced some distance in the art, which tends to
lighten, or invigorate one or the other side of a
horse, and thus induce him, coupled with other
means, to make the long strides, that is, lead, with
the lightened or active shoulder. But you, Tom,

Cantering in a Figure Eight. 135

will not be able to use this until you have de-
voted more time to study as well as practice.

After you have tried the circle to your satisfac-
tion, try cantering in a figure eight of sufficient
size. Nelly will thereby learn instinctively to
change step as she comes to the loops. You can
probably find a field or lawn somewhere on which
you can practice. Out-of-door instruction is al-
ways preferable to riding-school work, if equally
good, both for man and beast. And such instruc-
tion as these hints are intended to enable you to
give, will teach you more than the average riding-
school ever does. I by no means refer to those
schools which teach equitation as a true art, in-
stead of merely drilling you in the bald elements
of riding. Nor is there any better place to give
Nelly proper instruction than a riding-school, un-
less it be the lawn or field. What you teach
Nelly out-of-doors you will find her much more
willing and able to put into use on the road than
if she had gone through the same drill in a school.

XL.

The above is, of course, the crudest of methods
compared with the best School systems, but if
you have taught Nelly her side steps (or pirou-
ettes), as I have described them to you, or in other
words have to a certain extent suppled her fore-
hand and croup by the proper flexions, you can

136 A Better Way to Teach.

start in a more certain way. You must not ex-
pect to succeed at once. Success depends upon
Nelly's intelligence, your own patience, and the
delicate perceptions of both. I assume that you
will have already taught Nelly to canter when-
ever you wish her to do so, though she may have
been selecting her own lead. Now, you can, of
course, see, when you want her to canter, that if
you keep her head straight with the reins and
press upon her near flank with your leg, she will
throw her croup away from your leg, and be for
the moment out of the true line of advance.
This is bad for the walk or the trot, but just
what you want to induce her to start the canter
with the off shoulder leading. For if you can
keep her in this position until she takes the can-
ter, she will be more apt to lead of¥ with her right
shoulder, because the forcing of her croup to the
right has also pushed this shoulder in advance
of the other. If at the same time she is traveling
along a slope which runs up from her right, say
the left side of the road, or on a circle turning to
the right, she will be all the more apt to do this.
You can aid her also by a little marked play
with the right rein, which will tend to enliven
that side, and by giving it increased action, aid in
bringing it forward, even if not done with entire
expertness.

A number of English writers state that the

Indications Based on Instincts. 1 37

proper indication for the lead with the right foot
is a tap of the whip on the right side, but this ap-
pears to be lacking in good theory, and might
prove very confusing to a horse, despite the fact
that the animal can be made to learn anything as
an indication. A tap of the whip under the right
elbow would be more consistent with the horse's
action, although it is quite possible, as a feat, to
teach a horse to lead with the off shoulder by
pulling his off ear, or his tail, for the matter of
that. But indications are best when they tally
with a sound theory of the horse's motions.

Reverse causes will induce Nelly to lead with
the left shoulder. Not, of course, at once. For
though she will do it in a circle or figure eight,
on the road she may still be often confused. It
requires much time and practice to make her per-
fect. But once Nelly catches the idea, you can
surely succeed in impressing it on her for good
and all, and though she will blunder often enough,
she will in the end learn it thoroughly.

When you start out to make Nelly lead off
with one shoulder, be sure you accomplish your
object. If she leads off with the other, stop her
at once, and try again. Always succeed with a
horse in what you undertake. If you cannot, on
any given day, make Nelly lead right, do not let
her canter at all, but keep her on a trot or a walk.
It requires a number of successful trials to make

1 38 How to Change Lead.

it plain to the intelligence of a horse that he has
done what you want, and is to do it again on sim-
ilar indications. It is, therefore, well for him not
to have to learn too many new lessons at once.

XLI.

To change lead in motion is harder for the
horse and rider both to learn, and there is no bet-
ter test of a well-trained horse than an immediate
and balanced change of lead on call. A canter is
a gait somewhat similar to the gallop, though the
feet move and come down in different progres-
sion. But at certain times one or more of the
four feet are successively sustaining the weight,
and there is an interval when the horse is unsup-
ported in the air, or has only one hind foot upon
the ground. It is this last period which the horse
chooses in which to change his lead. Now, sup-
pose you are cantering with Nelly's right shoulder
leading, and want her to change to the left. If
you press upon her right flank with your leg,
she will want to shift her croup to the left. This
will incline her naturally to turn her head to the
right, which inclination you must counteract with
as little motion as possible of the reins. Nelly
will thus find that she is cantering uncomfortably
to herself, and if you will keep along in this way
for a few strides, she will very likely shift to her
left lead, because the constraint of your leg and

Rider Controls Horse s Discretion. 1 39

the bit are irksome while she continues to lead
with the right, and she will try what she can do to
get rid of the restraint. She certainly will change
after a while, particularly if aided by the circle or
slope, even if she does it because she does not
know what else to do. And by rousing or light-
ening the left shoulder by a play of the left rein
you will materially aid the change. So soon as.
she has changed, reward her by a few words, and
canter along on the new lead.

The reverse accomplishes a similar result. It
will probably take you many weeks to bring about
all this. If you do it in a few weeks, you will
succeed far beyond the average. But the process
of teaching an intelligent horse, if you are pa-
tient, is as pleasant as the result of the lessons
is agreeable, after they have had their due effect.

A horse should be so well trained as to be
ready to turn with a " false " lead if you ask him
to do so. Left to himself, he should take the
proper lead at the moment of turning. But he
must obey you to the extent of doing what he
would otherwise not do, and should properly not
do, if you give him the indication. And this
without becoming confused, so as to fail to do the
proper thing on the next occasion.

Though I by no means hold up Patroclus to-
day as a model performer of School-paces, which
I am perhaps too lazy to keep him as perfect in

140 Samples of Good and Bad Training,

as I ought to do, the results of good training still
remain. I sometimes, when out of sight, canter
him quite a stretch, say quarter of a mile, chang-
ing lead, first every fourth stride, then every third
stride, then every second, in regular rhythmic suc-
cession. If Patroclus fails to do this feat vi^ith ex-
actness, I can always recognize my own error in
too late an indication, rather than his in obeying
it. It is possible to canter him very slowly with
a change of lead at every stride, but such work is
very exhausting to a horse, and I have not often
done it. This latter feat must be done so slowly
that the gait is properly not a canter ; but Patro-
clus can perform the true canter, and change at
every second step readily for several hundred
yards.

There are undoubtedly many well-trained horses
in Boston, very likely more highly trained ones
than I am aware of ; but certainly the great ma-
jority of saddle beasts possess scarcely the rudi-
ments of an education. This seems to be a pity,
when it requires so little labor to give them one,
if their owners will but learn how to do so.

Not long ago a friend of mine, and an old rider
too, was exhibiting to me a recently purchased
horse, for whom he had paid a high price, be-
cause he was said to have come fresh from the
hands of some noted trainer. The horse would
fall into a canter with his own lead readily enough,

Backing. 141

but when, after a struggle of some hundred yards,
he was made to lead with the foot selected by the
rider, it was thought to be a triumph of clever-
ness. Is not this a common case ? And would
it not be well to rectify it ?

XLII.

There are a number of little exercises which
you ought by no means to omit, as, for instance,
practicing Nelly in backing quickly, handily, and
without losing her balance. This is only to be
done by slow degrees, a few steps at a time, and
by generously rewarding progress as she increases
her number of backward steps. Never force her.
Use persuasion only. In doing this, watch that
she is always well poised. Otherwise she cannot
back properly. You must also teach her, by that
use of the reins and legs which you will already
have learned, to change direction as she backs, as
easily as she does in moving forward. These
necessary things she has already been crudely
taught in her breaking-in.

If Nelly has the pride of a courageous horse,
as I should judge by her bright eye that she had,
she will be fairly greedy of kind words and ca-
resses. And I trust you will never allow her to
become afraid of the whip. You should be able
to switch your whip all about her face without
her heeding it. Reward goes much farther than

142 What a Lady May Do.

punishment. The latter needs very rarely to be
resorted to. I have never used it, barring in iso-
lated cases, but what afterwards I was ashamed of
it, and not infrequently I have made most sincere
apology and amends to the sufferer. But the
harm done has always been hard to eradicate.
An impatient man quickly loses his standing in
the confidence and affection of an intelligent
horse. In your training, a whip will be much
more useful than a crop. The latter is but a
badge of fashion, of absolutely no use on the
road, and of but little in education.

Now, Tom, I have suggested to you a number
of very crude rules for training your mare. Like
Captain Jack Bunsby I ought to add that " the
bearings of this observation lays in the applica-
tion on it." But by the patient aid of even these
simple methods, intelligently used, you will have
given Nelly an easy mouth, you will have suppled
her forehand and croup, and you will have taught
her to canter with either foot in the lead.

Everything which I have told you can be put
to use by a lady as well as a man. But a lady
needs preliminary teaching in a school, because it
is neither pleasant nor safe for her to be on the
road quite untaught. But having acquired a
seat and some little control of her horse, she can
apply all the rules I have given you, using her
whip as a man would use his right leg. The

Commencing to Leap. 143

short skirts of the day enable her to use her left
leg as readily as you can.

The gallop comes of itself, and needs but care
that your own position is good and does not
lose firmness or interfere with your hands. Bet-
ter sit down to the gallop. The jockey habit of
galloping in the stirrups is rarely of use except
as a means of changing your own seat and some-
times of easing your horse across ploughed fields
or bad ground. It is never proper for the road.

XLIII.

Having got thus far, you will surely want to
teach the mare to jump and yourself to sit her
firmly when she does so. Perhaps you may
choose to defer the tedious processes described
and go at jumping at once.

If you think you can sit a fairish jump, prob-
ably the best plan is to follow the hounds in a
quiet way some day, if it happens to be in their
season. A great many horses will jump imita-
tively when in company and do pretty clean sim-
ple work. There is a bit of a chance for a blun-
der this way, because a horse unused to jumping
cannot gauge his work and may come down.
But by taking him slowly at his fences, perhaps
at a walk, there is comparatively little risk. It is
the exceptional horse who will jump well in cold
blood, like Patroclus in the illustrations. But

144 How to Begin.

any horse can be taught to do so in a measure,
and no horse can be called a hunter unless he
will do so cleverly.

If you first go out with the hounds, there is
some danger that if your seat is insecure you
will drag Nelly back from her leaps, and worry
or confuse her so much that you will lose a deal
of ground. Though, indeed, she will be less read-
ily spoiled if she gets excited by the chase, than
if put at equally high jumps as a lesson, because
her eagerness to keep up with the other horses
will exceed her annoyance at your unsteady
hands.

I would advise you, on the whole, to have a lit-
tle practice in some quiet spot all by yourself. A
horse who will only jump in company is far from
perfect in this accomplishment. A well-trained
horse should jump a three and a half foot gate or
an eight foot ditch at any time as willingly as
start into a sharp gallop.

I assume that Nelly knows nothing of leaping.
Wander off into the fields somewhere. Find a
place where there is a gate or fence of several
bars. Let all these down but one or two, — leav-
ing enough in height for Nelly to step over if
she lifts her feet way up, — say twenty inches.
A fallen log is an excellent thing to try on.
Make her cross and recross the bar or log a num-
ber of times, by persuasion only. Any horse

Plate XIII.

ABOUT TO LAND.

Jumping the Same Obstacle, 145

will step over a high bar if you stand him in front
of it and encourage him. Don't scold or strike
her. Nothing disheartens the learning or cour-
ageous horse so much.

From the days of Xenophon down, any one
who loses his temper in training a horse, or uses
any but gentle means, violates the precept, prac-
tice, and experience of all successful horsemen.

" But never to approach a horse in a fit of
anger is the one great precept and maxim of con-
duct in regard to the treatment of a horse ; for
anger is destitute of forethought, and conse-
quently often does that of which the agent must
necessarily repent." Xen. Horsemanship, vi. 13.

Curiously enough, in spite of this rule, Xeno-
phon advocates the use of the whip and spur in
teaching a horse to leap — the gravest error, I
think, of this exceedingly sensible horseman.

It has been said that you should not make a
horse keep on jumping the same obstacle, because
he sees no reason for doing it, and feels that you
are making a fool of him. But my experience is
that a horse likes to jump at any well-known
thing, if he has been petted or rewarded for clev-
erly clearing it. A horse who has been given a
bit of sugar or apple after jumping is far from
feeling that he has been made a fool of, even if
he is jumped a dozen times over the same obsta-
cle. And every horse goes with double confi-

146 Rising to the Leap.

dence at a thing he has leaped before. It is the
horse who knows the country who makes easiest
headway and quickest after hounds, and is often-
est in at the death. At the same time it is true
that a horse can be spoiled by leaping him in
cold blood much more easily than when in the
company of many others. And it is also true that
if a horse is ridden at different things in succes-
sion, if such can be readily found, he learns to
take whatever comes in his path more handily
than if he is confined to only one jump. Still,
after once learning to jump any one obstacle, the
lesson is easily carried farther by riding across
simple bits of country.

As soon as Nelly walks right over the bar
without hesitation or any pause longer than
enough to lift her feet, walk or jog her up to it a
bit faster. She will soon find that it is less exer-
tion for her to rise to it with both feet at once,
;and hop over it, than to lift her feet so high. As
soon as she has caught this idea, reward her with
a nibble of something, for she has made her first
step in learning the lesson. A little sugar, salt,
or a bit of apple, or a green leaf or two, or a
bunch of grass you will find to be wonderful in-
centives.

Don't raise the bar too soon or too much.
When Nelly is quite familiar with the small jump
at a slow gait, trot her at it. Most horses can

Trotting at a Jump. 147

jump well from a trot. In fact some of the best
riders alwg,ys trot up to timber. It is a tempta-
tion of Providence to try to fly a stiff bit of tim-
ber, unless you have a wonderful jumper who
knows you well, or unless you are at the begin-
ning of a run, when your horse is in his best con-
dition ; and Providence should never be tempted
except when a considerable result lies trembling
in the balance.

When Nelly takes the obstacle cleverly from a
trot, canter her at it, and gradually she will take
pleasure in hopping over it, particularly if she
now and then gets a tidbit at the other side.
Moreover, this tidbit will accomplish another ob-
ject. It will teach your mare not to rush as soon
as she clears her fence, which a horse who is
whipped at his jumps almost always does. By in-
sensible degrees and within a few weeks you will
get Nelly to jump three feet high, or even three
and a half. If she can do this in cold blood,
" clane and cliver," she will be able to do anything
within reason which you need when in company.
You can try her in just the same way at small,
then at large ditches, always keeping to the famil-
iar place and rewarding success, until Nelly learns
what jumping in the abstract is. After that, try
her at all kinds of things in moderation.

There is more than a grain of good sense in
the idea that a horse does not want to be made to

1 48 One or Two Handed jumping,

jump unnecessarily. And it is true that some
horses get stubborn if always put at the same ob-
stacle without an object. But if a horse associates
praise and reward with jumping, he will be ready
for it at any proper time. You should, however,
avoid making a tired horse leap except when it
is absolutely necessary. Let him do this work
when he is fresh. You of course know that a
really stanch horse is usually fresher after five or
ten miles of average speed than at the start. The
best of stayers are often quite dull until they get
their legs stretched and their bodies emptied.
This particularly applies to aged horses. And
perhaps the very worst time to jump a horse is
when he is just out of the stall.

XLIV.

How about holding the reins in the jump.?
Well, now we come to debatable ground. To-
day's fashion tells you to use both hands. The
old-fashioned English habit, as well as the neces-
sary habit of the soldier and of all other riders
who have work to do, is to use the bridle hand
alone. I prefer the latter habit. Only a half-
trained horse needs both hands. A good jumper
ought to want to jump, not have to be steered
and shoved over an obstacle. I am willing to
allow that some brutes have to be so steered ; but
if a horse is well-taught, likes to leap, and can be

A Warm Heart and a Cool Head. 1 49

safely ridden at an obstacle with one hand, why
use two ? If a man is astride a horse who must
be steered, let him use both. If he can teach his
horse to be true at his jumps with but one hand,
both will have gained a point, and be one hand
better off. For two hands may be used at any
time, if called for.

A sound and vigorous horse, who has been
properly taught to jump, will take anything which
he feels that his rider himself means to go over.
If you want utterly to spoil your Nelly, ride her
at things you yourself feel uncertain about clear-
ing. She will quickly find out your mood from
your hands. The only rule for keeping your
mare true to her work is never to ride at any-
thing which you have not made up your mind to
carry her over. Be true to yourself in your am-
bition to jump, and Nelly will be true to you. It
is usually the horses that have been fooled by un-
certain hearts and tremulous hands who fail you
at the critical moment, or who have to be steered
over their fences. So long as your horse has
jumping ability, and you have a "warm heart and
a cool head," you can go anywhere.

A generation ago no one was ashamed of even
letting his right arm fly up now and then, for it
was not in olden times the extremity of " bad
form " which it is now pronounced to be. Look
over Doyle or Leech for proof of this. But the

150 Uses for Right Arm,

main argument against the unnecessary use of
two hands is that you may absolutely require
your right hand for something else, while it cer-
tainly argues a poor training or character in a
horse to make it a sine qua non for you to em-
ploy both at every leap. Of what avail would a
trooper be in a charge, with his horse bounding
over dismounted companions, dead, or, worse still,
wounded and struggling horses, and all manner
of obstacles, if he had to steer his horse with his
sword-hand ? And not infrequently you will find,
in the peaceful charge after harmless Reynard,
that your right arm is better employed in fend-
ing off blows from stray branches or in opening
a passage through a close cover, than in hold-
ing on to one of your reins. Have you never
been through a bullfinch where you must part
the clustering branches if you were to scramble
through and avoid the wondrous wise man's
bramble-bush experience ? Have you never felt
your hat going at the instant your horse was tak-
ing off } Have you never seen just the neatest
place in the hedge obstructed by a single branch,
which your right arm could thrust aside as you
flew over? Have you never, O my hunting
brother, had to make an awfully sudden grab at
your horse's mane ?

And while I am happy to defer to the opinion
of some of the most noted steeple-chasers and

How to Sit a Jump. 151

first-flight men in this controversy, when they
call single-hand jumping a hateful practice, and
ascribe to it half the bad habits of the hunter and
the crooked seats of the rider, I am satisfied to
look at the portraits of such wonderful equestri-
ans as Captain Percy Williams, or Tom Clarke,
huntsman of the Old Berkshire, and a dozen oth-
ers that could be instanced, all using the bridle
hand alone, and some of them even forgetting
that it is " bad form " to let the right elbow leave
the side. Bad form, forsooth! These portraits
would scarcely have been thus painted if the habit
had met the disapproval of the celebrated horse-
men in question.

So far as you are concerned, Tom, you will
learn while Penelope is learning. Use your snaffle
bit alone. A man needs light hands to jump with
a curb, or else his horse must have a leather
mouth. Whenever Nelly has made up her mind
to jump, let her have her head. Don't try to tell
her when to take off. Leave that to her, and
don't flurry her while she is making up her mind
when and where to do it. Leave that to the very
experienced rider. If she is jumping from a
stand, or slow trot, you can say a word of encour-
agement to her, but by no means do so at a gal-
lop, when within a stride or two of the jump. Be
ready, however, to draw rein sufficient to give her
some support as soon as she has landed.

152 Landing on Hind Legs.

You will find that when Nelly jumps, the
strong and quick extension of her hind legs will
throw you into the air and forward. To obviate
this settle down in your seat, in other words,
" curl your sitting bones under you," use your
legs (not your heels), and lean back just enough
not to get thrown from your saddle. Don't try
any of the fancy ideas about first leaning forward
to ease her croup while she takes off. You will
come a cropper if you do. Lean back. It will
not take you long to find out how much, and the
leaning forward will come of itself.

XLV.

It is often alleged by old cross-country riders
that the best hunters land on their hind feet.
Many no doubt land so quickly and so well gath-
ered that they give to the eye the appearance of
so doing. But I doubt if photography would
really show them to land other than on one fore
foot, instantly relieved by the second one planted
a short stride farther on, and followed by the cor-
responding hind ones in succession. Plate XIV.
shows what I mean, and the same thing appears
in all the Muybridge photographs. But your eye
can by no means catch Patroclus in this position.
His hind legs seem to follow his fore legs much
more closely ; and he always lands cleverly and so
well gathered as to make not the slightest falter

Dont Lose your Bridle. 153

in his new stride. It is also said that the best
water-jumpers skim and do not rise much to the
jump. But I fancy that every horse rises more
to water than the fancy drawn pictures show.
Gravitation alone, it seems, would make this nec-
essary. Photography would prove the fact, but
there are probably not enough such photographs
extant to-day to decide upon the question.

You may read a dozen volumes about jumping,
Tom, but a dozen jumps will teach you a dozen
times as much as the printer's ink. And remem-
ber that a standing or an irregular jump, even if
small, or that the leap of a pony, is harder to sit
than a well-timed jump of twice the dimensions
on a full grown horse. I have been nearly dis-
mounted in teaching a new horse much oftener
than in the hunting-field. It is only when your
horse comes down, or when a bad jumper rushes
at his fence and then swerves or refuses suddenly,
that there is any grave danger of a fall in riding
to hounds.

Don't be afraid of a fall. It won't hurt you
much in nineteen cases out of twenty. If you
find you are really going and can't save yourself,
don't stiffen. Try to flop, the more like a drunken
man the better. It is rigid muscles which break
bones. This is a hard rule to learn. Many falls
alone teach its uses. A suggestion will by no
means do so. But hold on to your reins for

154 A Hog-Backed Stile.

your life, Tom, when you fall. This is one of the
most important things to remember. It has saved
many a man from being dragged.

A man who brags that he has never had a fall
may be set down as having never done much
hard riding. Many a time and oft have the very
best riders and their steeds entered the next field
in Tom Noddy's order :

Tom Noddy i.

T. N.'s b. g. Dan 2.

And yet how few bones there are broken for the
number of falls. A good shaking up is all there
is to it, as a rule. When a man mellows into
middle life — (how much farther on in years
middle life is when we are well past forty than
when we are twenty-five !) — he is apt to feel dis-
creet, because conscious that a bad spill may
hurt him worse than in his youth, and he will
look upon a " hog-backed stile " as a thing requir-
ing a deal of deliberation, if not a wee bit jump-
ing-powder. He will avoid trying conclusions
whenever he can. But at your age and with your
legs, on that mare of yours, Tom, you should go
anywhere, if she will learn to jump cleverly.

Your feet should be " home " in the stirrups,
and you will naturally throw them slightly back-
ward as you hold on, toes down, because it both
gives you the better grip and keeps your stirrup

Hunting and School Hands. 155

on your foot. In this particular, Tom, I bid you
heed my precept, and not study my example,
which is by no means of the best, as I am re-
duced to jumping with a straight leg, and to fas-
tening my stirrup to my foot, lest I should not
find it when I land.

XLVI.

The Englishman's method and seat for cross-
country riding is undeniably the best, and per-
haps is hardly to be criticised. But a good seat
or hands for hunting are not necessarily good for
all other saddle work. That firmness in the sad-
dle which will take a man over a five-foot wall
may not be of the same quality as will give him
absolutely light hands for School-riding. For as
a rule, Englishmen prefer hunters who take pretty
well hold of the bridle, and work well up to the
bit. And for this one purpose, perhaps they are
right. Such a hold will not, however, teach a man
the uses of light hands in the remotest degree.

In a sharp run to hounds, a horse must have
his head. For high pace or great exertions of
mere speed, the horse must be free. A twitch on
the curb may check him at a jump and give him
a bad fall. As in racing, a horse has to learn that
his duty is to put all his courage, speed, and jump-
ing ability into his work, subject only to discreet
guidance and management. But on the road, the

156 Patroclus Gaits,

exact reverse should be the rule. There is surely
less enjoyment in your Penelope, who to-day can
only walk, or else go a four-minute gait without
constant friction, than there will be when she can
vary her gaits and keep up any desired rate of
speed, from a walk to a fifteen-mile trot or a sharp
gallop, at the least intimation of your hands and
without discomfort to herself. I know of nothing
more annoying than to be forced by a riding
companion of whichever sex into a sharper gait
than either of you wish to go, because mounted
on a fretting horse, who cannot be brought down
to a comfortable rate of speed until all but tired
out.

In the hunting field you expect to go fast for a
short time, and it is alone the speed and the oc-
casional obstacle which lend the zest to the sport.
But for the ride on the road, which to many of us
is a lazy luxury, you need variety in speed as well
as gaits for both comfort and pleasure. Patro-
clus here will walk, amble, rack, single-foot, trot,
canter, gallop, and run, or go from any one into
any other at will ; and every one of these gaits is
unmistakably distinct, crisp, and well performed.
Nor have I ever found him any the less accom-
plished cross-country, within his limitation of con-
dition and speed, for having had a complete edu-
cation for the road. When I give him his head
and loosen my curb, I find him just as free as if I

1

i

The Amble. 157

had never restrained him from choosing his own
course. Who can deny that the pleasure to be
derived from such a horse for daily use does not
exceed that to be got from one who can only
trot on the road, or run and jump in the field ?

Perhaps Nelly will never learn so much, for Pa-
troclus is an exceptionally intelligent and well-
suppled horse. But she can learn a good deal of
it. Patroclus had no idea of any gait but a walk
or trot when I bought him, nor did he start with
any better equipment than Penelope ; and in less
than a year he knew all that he knows now, and
much that he has forgotten. For in the many
High School airs which he once could at call
perform, he is altogether rusty from sheer lack of
usage. But the " moral " may remain, though the
fable may have long since passed from the mem-
ory.

XLVII.

Some horses, who trot squarely, will go natu-
rally from a walk into a little amble or pace, which
is sometimes called a " shuffle." Often this is an
agreeable and handsome gait, but not infrequently
far from pleasant. Often, too, it will spoil the
speed of the walk, as the horse will insensibly fall
into it if pushed beyond his ease. A slower rate
at a faster pace is always easier to a horse than
the extreme of speed at the lesser gait. It is
scarcely worth while in the East to try to teach a

158 Advantages of the True Rack.

horse to amble or rack if he does not naturally
do so, though it can often be done.

Apart from the agreeable and useful side of the
true rack as a gait, it has not a few further advan-
tages. In coming from a canter to a walk, a horse
may be taught to slow up into a rack, and then
drop to the walk, or to stop in the same manner.
This enables him to come down without the least
suspicion of that roughness which almost all
horses show when stopping a canter, particularly
if done quickly ; unless, indeed, they be " poised "
before being stopped, as a School-ridden horse al-
ways is from every gait. Moreover, when you
rein a cantering horse down within the slowest
limit of his speed at that pace, as to allow a team
to pass, or for a similar purpose, if he knows how,
he will fall into a rack, from which he can with
much more comfort to himself and you resume
the canter, than if he had fallen into a walk. A
rack is not an interruption of the canter, as is a
jog or walk, but a mere retardando, as it were.
Still a rapid walk, a trot which varies from six to
ten miles, and a well-collected canter suffice for
any of our Eastern needs. These, and the gal-
lop, moreover, are considered the only permissi-
ble paces by the School-riders of Europe.

In our Southern States rackers are bred for,
and the instinct is confirmed by training. In
many warm countries, ambling is bred for. I do

The Rack a Good School Gait. 159

not think that any horse with practically but a
single gait, as is usually the case with the ambler
or racker, comes up to the requisite standard of
usefulness. Of the two, I should give my prefer-
ence, in our latitude, to a mere trotter, if easy,
who had a busy walk beside. But in addition to
the trot and canter, any comfortable gait may
often be a relief, and it is eminently desirable, if
the horse can learn it without spoiling his proper
paces. Such a gait adds vastly to a horse's value
for the saddle.

I cannot agree with the School-riders that a
rack may not be a good School gait. Patroclus'
rack, when collected, is certainly as clean a per-
formance as any of his other gaits. From it he
will drop back to a walk, or fall into a canter or
gallop with either lead, or into a square trot. And
this more quickly than from another gait, for if,
in a canter, the indication to trot be given him
out of season, he may be obliged to complete one
more stride before he can execute the order;
whereas, from a rack, which is always a mid-stride
for any gait, he can instantly fall into the one
commanded. The indication and execution are
often all but instantaneous from the rack. He is
really more neatly collected on the rack proper
than on any other gait, except the canter; and
though the rack is unrecognized as a School pace,
I feel certain that I could convince any master of

i6o The Natural Seat.

the Haute Ecole that within proper limits it is an
addition, not a loss, to the education of a horse.
What School-riders mean when they exclude the
rack from School paces is that a racker has rarely
any other gait ; and in the usual loose-jointed rack
of the South a horse is certainly not well enough
poised for use in School performances.

XLVIII.

To come back to our original text, then, it is
quite impossible to say, as a whole, what seat is
intrinsically the best, or what nation furnishes the
best of riders. It appears to me that there is
such a thing as a natural seat. Such a seat is
clearly shown on the frieze of the Parthenon, and
in a less artistic way may be seen among any
horsemen riding without stirrups. Although Xen-
ophon has been misunderstood in this particular,
I feel convinced that his description calls for what
I understand to be the natural seat. And the
best military riders make the nearest approach to
this position. By military seat I by no means in-
tend to convey the idea of a straight leg, forked
radish style. That is not the military seat proper.
It is only in spite of such a seat, or in spite of
the short stirrup of the East, and because they
are always in the saddle, that the Mexican gaucho
and the Arab of the desert both ride as magnifi-
cently as they do. The best military rider should,

Extreme Length of Stirrups. i6i

and does, carry the leg as it naturally falls when
sitting on his breech, not his crotch, on the bare
back of a horse. The steeple-chaser, or cross-
country rider, for perfectly satisfactory reasons,
has a much shorter stirrup. But on the road,
he should, and generally does, come back more
nearly to the natural length. The main advan-
tage in the very long stirrup which obtains among
so many peoples lies in the possibility of sitting
close on a trot with greater ease, and of using
the lasso or whip, or in having a free hand for
their sundry sports or duties. And a high pom-
mel and cantle are advantageous in helping the
rider preserve his seat when he might be dragged
— not thrown — from it in some of his peculiar
experiences. But the perfectly straight leg al-
ways bears a suggestion of the parting advice of
the groom to a Sunday rider just leaving the sta-
ble : " Look straight between his hears, sir, and
keep your balance, and you cant come hoff." On
the other hand, the advantages of an extremely
short stirrup, such as prevails in the Orient, are
very difficult to be understood at all.

The military riders of every civilized country,
where enlistments are long enough, and where
proper care is given to the instruction in eques-
trianism, are excellent. It would be curious in-
deed if men who devote their lives to the art
should not be so. Some of our old army cavalry

1 62 The " One-Armed Devil."

officers rode gloriously. Our volunteer cavalry,
late in the war, rode strongly, though not always
handsomely. During the past twenty years the
severe work and long marches of our regular
mounted troops have militated greatly against
equestrianism as an art. Some of the most ac-
complished riders I have ever known have been in
the United States Army. Philip Kearny, that
preux chevalier, the " one-armed devil," was in
every sense a superb rider. I have seen him with
his cap in one hand, his empty sleeve blowing
outward with his speed, and his sword dangling
from his wrist, ride over a Virginia snake fence
such as most of us would want to knock at least
the top rail off.

" How he strode his brown steed ! How we saw his blade
brighten
In the one hand still left, — and the reins in his teeth !
He laughed like a boy when the holidays heighten,
But a soldier's glance shot from his visor beneath ! "

And a man who could not follow him did not long
remain upon his staff.

One of my lost opportunities occurred for such
a reason during Pope's campaign, when General
Kearny, who had dispatched right and left all his
aides, beckoned to me at dusk one evening to
ride out and draw the fire of some of the enemy's
troops supposed to be on the edge of a wood,
some half a mile or so distant. My own horse

Army Steeple-Chases, 163

had been shot, and my equipments lost. I had
captured an old farm-horse without a saddle, and
had extemporized a rope bridle. The course lay
athwart some open fields, with a number of fences
still standing. My desire to do this work stood
in inverse ratio to my steed's ability to second me.
And no sooner had I ridden up and touched my
cap for orders, than the general had gauged the
poverty of my beast and rig, and speedily selected
a better mounted messenger.

During the war, among the volunteer troops,
we used in some of the divisions to organize
steeple-chases during a long term of inactive op-
erations, and good ones we frequently had ; the
old style steeple-chase over an unknown course
being the fashion, and the steeple generally a
prominent tree, at a distance of a couple of miles.
Often the course was round a less distant tree
and back again. Not a few good riders and
horses were forthcoming to enter for such an
event, and I have rarely seen better riding than
there. An unknown course over Virginia fences,
and through patches of Virginia second growth,
especially after heavy rains, when mere gutters
became rivers for a number of hours, and the
ground was much like hasty-pudding, could be
a test to try the best of horses and horsemen.

These are but isolated examples, instanced only
as showing that every species of hard saddle work

164 The Best Rider.

is very naturally apt to be cultivated among men
whose duty keeps them in the saddle the better
part of every day. And it is well known that
English army officers are among the very best
cross-country riders, and not a few have occu-
pied the dignity of M. F. H., and done it credit.
Surely such a rider, trained in the niceties of the
manege^ as well as experienced in' riding to hounds,
may fitly be placed at the head of the equestrian
roll of honor.

After excluding professionals, then (and excep-
tional individuals), I am afraid I must brave crit-
icism in calling the officers of civilized mounted
troops distinctly the best class of riders. Next
— perhaps you will say in the same category —
comes that class in England which makes its one
pleasure the prosecution of the most splendid of
all sports, fox-hunting, and has reached perfection
in the art. Excluding all riders who do not be-
long to the classes available for our imitation,
there comes next, longo intervallo^ the civilian
rider everywhere.

It is impossible to draw any comparison be-
tween the above classes and even our own cow-
boys, whose peculiar duties and untamed mus-
tangs prescribe their long leathers and horned
pommel. Nor can the equatorial style be fairly
contrasted with what meets the wants of the

Southern Equestriennes. 165

denizens of the civilized cities of the temperate
zone.

In this country, the Southerner is the most
constantly in the saddle, and a good rider in the
sunny South is a thoroughly good rider. But I
have often wondered at the number of poor ones
it is possible to find in localities where everybody
moves about in the saddle. Many men there,
who ride all the time, seem to have acquired the
trick of breaking every commandment in the dec-
alogue of equitation. Using horses as a mere
means of transportation seems sometimes to re-
duce the steed to a simple beast of burden, and
equestrianism to the bald ability to sit in the sad-
dle as you would in an ox-cart.

I think I have seen more graceful equestri-
ennes in the South than anywhere else, — than
even in England. But I must admit that all
women who ride well possess such attractions for
me as perhaps to warp my judgment in endeav-
oring to draw comparisons. Who but a Paris
could have awarded the apple ?

Although the Southern woman refuses to ride
the trot, she has a proper substitute for it, and her
seat is generally admirable. Though I greatly
admire a square trot well ridden in a side-saddle,
it is really the rise on this gait which makes so
many crooked female riders among ourselves and
our British cousins. This ought not to be so, but

1 66 Our Yankee Women.

ladies are apt to resent too much severity in in-
struction, and without strict obedience to her
master, a lady never learns to ride gracefully and
stoutly. In the South, ladies ride habitually, and
moreover a rack, single-foot, and canter are not
only graceful, but straight-sitting paces for a
woman.

It is not to-day risking much, however, to
prophesy that within the lapse of little time our
Eastern cities will boast as many clever Amazons
as are to be found in the South. Who can con-
tend that our Yankee women have not the intel-
ligence, courage, vigor, and grace to rank with
the riders of any clime }

XLIX.

And now, Master Tom, let me again impress
upon you that I have been giving you only the
most rudimentary idea of how to train your mare.
By no means expect that Nelly will ever execute
the traverse, pirouette, Spanish trot, or piaffer,
let alone trot or gallop backwards, as these airs
should be performed, by any such superficial ed-
ucation. But you will certainly find her more
agreeable, more tractable, safer, and easier, and
you will have both enjoyed the schooling. And
I feel assured that having gone so far you will
not stop short of the next step, the study and
practice of the art in its true refinements. I may,

Vale! 167

moreover, safely assume that after you have once
owned a School-trained horse, you will never
again be content with what might be appropri-
ately termed the " perfect saddle horse " of com-
merce.

Our roads part here, — yours towards the studi-
ous shades of Harvard, mine towards the rolling
uplands of Chestnut Hill. Fare you well !

CONTENTS.

PAGB

I. Patroclus and I 19

II. Saddles and Seats 22

III. Patroclus on a Rack 28

IV. The Rack and Single-Foot .... 29
V. Patroclus Trotting 32

VI. Thoroughbred or Half-Bred .... 33

VII. The Saddle Mania 35

VIII. Park-Riding 37

IX. A Fine Horse not necessarily a Good Hack . 39

X. Soldiers have Stout Seats 41

XI. A Gate and a Brook 44

XII. The Old Trooper 48

XIII. Instruction in Riding 49

XIV. Chilly Fox-Hunting 51

XV. Is Soldier or Fox-Hunter the Better Rider ? . 55

XVI. The School-Rider 56

XVII. Patroclus happy 59

XVIII. Photography versus Art 61

XIX. A One-Man Horse 69

XX. Baucher's Favorite Saddle Horse ... 70

XXI. Patroclus sniffs a Friend 73

XXII. Riding-Schools and School-Riding ... 74

XXIII. Is Schooling of Value ? id

XXIV. Manuals of Training 82

XXV. Result of Training 83

XXVI. Qualities of the Horse • 86

XXVII. Dress, Saddles, and Bridles .... 87

XXVIII. Mounting 89

170

Contents.

PAGE

XXIX. How to hold the Reins 92

XXX. How to begin Training 94

XXXI. Penelope's Unrestrained Courage . . -97

XXXII. Hints before beginning to train a Horse . . 98

XXXIII. Guiding by the Neck 104

XXXIV. What an Arched Neck means .... 109
XXXV. Flexions of the Neck 113

XXXVI. Flexions of tlie Croup 116

XXXVII. The Canter 121

XXXVIII. Leading with either Shoulder . . . .125

XXXIX. The Horse's Natural Lead 131

XL. The Best Way to teach the Lead ... 135

XLI. Change of Lead in Motion 138

XLII. Suggestions 141

XLIII. How to begin Jumping 143

XLIV. The Reins in the Jump 148

XLV. Odds and Ends of Leaping 152

XLVI. Hunting and Road-Riding . . . • iS5

XLVII. Advantages of True Rack 157

XLVIII. Who is the Best Rider? 160

XLIX. Vale! . 166

/

^$^^^bster Family Library of Veterinary MeJ@toiit

(OysMiings School of Veterinary U&dk^mi ^

Tufts University

too Westboro Road

PATROCLUS AND PENELOPE

^ CH^T IN THE SADDLE

BY

THEODORE AYRAULT DODGE

BREVET LIEUTENANT-COLONEL UNITED STATES ARMY (RETIRED LISt) ; AUTHOR OF " THE CAMPAIGN
OF CHANCELLORSVILLE," "a bird's-eye view of the civil war," ETC., ETC.

ILLUSTRATED WITH FOURTEEN PHOTOTYPES OF
THE HORSE IN MOTION

Since — ^5 it has been our fortune to he long engaged about
horses — -xe consider that we have acquired some knowledge of horse-
manship, we desire also to intimate to the j>ounger part of our
friends how we think that they majr bestow their attention on horses
to the best advantage. Xenophon on Horsemanship

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
BOSTON AND NEW YORK

PATROCLUS AND PENELOPE:

A Chat in the Saddle. By Theodore Ayrault Dodge, Brevet Lieu-
tenant-Colonel, U. S. A. (Retired List), author of " The Campaign
of Chancellorsville," "A Bird's-Eye View of the Civil War," etc.
Illustrated with fourteen phototypes of the Horse in motion. In
one volume, octavo, gilt top, half roan, $3.00.

Contents : Patroclus and I ; Saddles and Seats ; Patroclus on a Rack ;
The Rack and Single-Foot; Patroclus Trotting; Thoroughbred or Half-
Bred ; The Saddle Mania ; Park-Riding ; A Fine Horse not necessarily a
Good Hack ; Soldiers have Stout Seats ; A Gate and a Brook ; The Old
Trooper; Instruction in Riding; Chilly Fox-Hunting ; Is Soldier or Fox-
Hunter the Better Rider? The School-Rider; Patroclus Happy; Photog-
raphy versus Art; A One-Man Horse; Baucher's Favorite Saddle Horse;
Patroclus sniffs a Friend ; Riding-Schools and School-Riding ; Is School-
ing of Value ? Manuals of Training ; Result of Training ; Qualities of the
Horse ; Dress, Saddles, and Bridles ; Mounting ; How to hold the Reins ;
How to begin Training ; Penelope's Unrestrained Courage ; Hints before
beginning to train a Horse ; Guiding by the Neck ; What an Arched Neck
means ; Flexions of the Neck ; Flexions of the Croup ; The Canter ; Lead-
ing with either Shoulder; The Horse's Natural Lead; The Best Way to
teach the Lead; Change of Lead in Motion; Suggestions; How to begin
Jumping; The Reins in the Jump ; Odds and Ends of Leaping; Hunting
and Road-Riding; Advantages of True Rack; Who is the Best Rider?
Vale !

This book is written from an experience extending over thirty jyears, — in the
English hunting field, the Prussian armj>, the plains of the IVest, active service
during the Civil IVar, and dailji riding everywhere. The author has studied
equestrianism as an art, and, although believing in the Haute Ecole of Baucher,
enjoys with equal ^est a ride to hounds or a gallop on the western prairies.

The experienced equestrian will be delighted by the author's breep' talk and
thorough knowledge of his subject. The young horseman who may have purchased
a colt just broken to harness can by the use of its hints make him as clever as
Patroclus. Even the man who rides but a do^en times a year will be interested
in the book, while the every-day reader will be charmed by its simplicity, geniality,
and heartiness.

NOTICES OF THE PRESS.

The reader must feel that he is in distinctively good company. It
is a running commentary on saddle-riding, and gives the reader much
the same advantages he would have from a season's riding in company
with a gentleman who has ridden in all countries, on all sorts of ani-
mals, and under all sorts of conditions. . . . One of the most attract-
ive of recent books. — Boston Advertiser.

We all love Isaak Walton's talks about fish or John Burroughs's es-
says on birds; in the same spirit is this delightful book of Col. Dodge's.
... It is a familiar chat of a man who knows all about horsemanship
and can tell you how to mount or ride, what saddle or bridle to use,
and, at the same time, touch upon life in the saddle with words which
will make your blood tingle. — Saturday Evening Gazette (Boston).

It consists of a series of essay-like chapters written in a lively,
chatty, conversational manner which makes it charming reading. The
advice is full of hints and suggestions to the experienced horseman as
well as of instructions of the utmost value to the new initiate in the
equestrian art. We are in sympathy with the author before the first
page is turned. — Yak Literary Magazine (New Haven).

The volume consists of a most charming series of chats about horses
and horsemanship by a man who is thoroughly in the spirit of his sub-
ject, and who is not a hidebound partisan of any school of equestrian-
ism, holding to the catholic belief that there are good riders in every
land and in tvexy species of saddle. — Army and Navv journal (New
York).

It abounds in excellent suggestions, the fruit of sound experience,
accurate observations, and good common sense. It is an excellent
book for the amateur. Withal it is told in a pleasant, easy way, as if
it had been written in the saddle instead of at the desk. — Christian
Register (Boston),

Col. Dodge combines to an altogether uncommon degree the merit
of a close acquaintance with and real enthusiasm in his subject, and
the quality of a trained literarian. The aspiring equestrian will gain
instruction from the lips of a masterly instructor. — Christia?i Union
(New York).

Col. Dodge has given the beginner in the art of horsemanship the
best possible introduction to his pleasurable task. The author has
had a much wider store of practical experience in horsemanship than
his predecessors in this field of instruction. — New York Evening Post.

The practical horseman cannot fail to admire the firm, easy seat
which the beginner will do well to copy. " Patroclus " is ably de-
scribed, and, if up to what is said of him, must be a gem of the first
water. — Neiv York Times.

One who has had some experience in the saddle will derive from it
the same sort of profit and entertainment which might be expected
from an accomplished, observant, clear-headed, and good-natured com-
panion on the road. — New York Tribune.

Col. Dodge rode his horse at the time the photographs were taken,
and his skill in horsemanship is exhibited by a seat that was undis-
turbed by even the most violent exertions of his steed. — Sporting and
Dramatic News (London).

His horse "Patroclus" is his hero, his mare "Penelope " his hero-
ine, and the adventures undertaken with the aid of these two good
animals make a story which will fire the blood of every reader. —
Brooklyn Union.

Col. Dodge has succeeded in giving much excellent advice on the
management of the horse, while at the same time holding the reader's
attention by the interest of the narrative. — Herald-Crimson (Cam-
bridge).

The beginner who will follow the excellent and simple rules of
training given by our author will be sure to win success in the art and
a great deal of pleasure by the way. — The Nation (New. York).

Considerable as is the space allotted to jumping, it is not too great
in view of the popularity of cross-country riding. We find in it noth-
ing to criticise. — Philadelphia Record.

Written in a pleasant, sympathetic vein and in almost conversational
form, it has an abundance of keen hints and graceful thoughts on
horseback riding as an art. — Cincinnati Commercial Gazette.

He covers the whole ground of good horsemanship, not as an ama-
teur or theorist, but as one who knows all the facts with which he
deals. — San Francisco Chronicle.

Col. Dodge is an expert in all the finesse and paraphernalia of horses
and horseback-riding. . . . The advice is sound and simple and very
direct. — The Critic (New York).

The chapters on the training of horse and rider are full of sound in-
formation, clearly stated, and practical to the last. — yournal of Mili-
tary Service Institution (New York).

A lover of horses will find in this volume a book which will give
him unlimited pleasure. — The Book-Buyer (New York).

This book will be given an enthusiastic welcome by all lovers of
equestrianism. — Chicago Journal.

The hearty animal spirits which gallop through its pages are catch-
ing. — Netv York Mail and Express.

Col. Dodge is a charming teacher. — Boston Herald.

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY,

Publishers,

Boston and New York.

!♦■ r \