Riding for Ladies

PREFACE.
This work should be taken as following on, and in conjunction with, its predecessor on Riding. In that publication will be found various chapters on Action, The Aids, Bits and Bitting, Leaping, Vice, and on other cognate subjects which, without undue repetition, cannot be reintroduced here. These subjects are of importance to and should be studied by all, of either sex, who aim at perfection in the accomplishment of Equitation, and who seek to control and manage the saddle-horse.
W. A. K.
CONTENTS.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
RIDING FOR LADIES.

CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
What I have said on the excellence of horse-exercise for boys and men, applies equally to girls and women, if, indeed, it does not recommend itself more especially in the case of the latter. For the most part the pursuits of women are so quiet and sedentary that the body is rarely called into that complete activity of all the muscles which is essential to their perfect development, and which produces the strength and freedom of movement so indispensable to perfect grace of carriage.
The woman who has been early accustomed to horse-exercise gains a courage and nerve which it would be difficult to acquire in a more pleasant and healthful manner. She also gains morally in learning to feel a sympathy with the noble animal to whom she is indebted for so much enjoyment, and whose strength and endurance are too often cruelly abused by man. Numerous instances have occurred in my experience of the singular influence obtained by ladies over their horses by simple kindness, and I am tempted to introduce here an account of what gentle treatment can effect with the Arab. The lady who told the tale did not lay claim to being a first-rate horsewoman. Her veracity was undoubted, for her whole life was that of a ministering angel. She wrote thus: I had a horse provided for me of rare beauty and grace, but a perfect Bucephalus in her way. She was only two generations removed from a splendid Arabian, given by the good old king to the Duke of Kent when H.R.H. went out in command to Nova Scotia. The creature was not three years old, and to all appearance unbroken. Her manners were those of a kid rather than of a horse; she was of a lovely dappled gray, with mane and tail of silver, the latter almost sweeping the ground; and in her frolicsome gambols she turned it over her back like a Newfoundland dog. Her slow step was a bound, her swift motion unlike that of any other animal I ever rode, so fleet, so smooth, so unruffled. I know nothing to which I can compare it. Well, I made this lovely creature so fond of me by constant petting, to which, I suppose, her Arab character made her peculiarly sensitive, that my voice had equal power over her, as over my faithful docile dog. No other person could in the slightest degree control her. Our corps, the 73rd Batt. of the 60th Rifles, was composed wholly of the élite of Napoleon's soldiers, taken in the Peninsula, and preferring the British service to a prison. They were, principally, conscripts, and many were evidently of a higher class in society than those usually found in the ranks. Among them were several Chasseurs and Polish Lancers, very fine equestrians, and as my husband had a field-officer's command on detachment, and allowances, our horses were well looked after. His groom was a Chasseur, mine a Pole, but neither could ride Fairy unless she happened to be in a very gracious mood. Lord Dalhousie's English coachman afterwards tried his hand at taming her, but all in vain. In an easy quiet manner she either sent her rider over her head or, by a laughable manœuvre, sitting down like a dog on her haunches, slipped him off the other way. Her drollery made the poor men so fond of her that she was rarely chastised, and such a wilful, intractable wild Arab it would be hard to find. Upon her I was daily mounted. Inexperienced in riding, untaught, unassisted, and wholly unable to lay any check upon so powerful an animal, with an awkward country saddle, which, by some fatality, was never well fixed, bit and bridle to match, and the mare's natural fire increased by high feed, behold me bound for the wildest paths in the wildest regions of that wild country. But you must explore the roads about Annapolis, and the romantic spot called the General's Bridge, to imagine either the enjoyment or the perils of my happiest hour. Reckless to the last degree of desperation, I threw myself entirely on the fond attachment of the noble creature; and when I saw her measuring with her eye some rugged fence or wild chasm, such as it was her common sport to leap over in her play, the soft word of remonstrance that checked her was uttered more from regard to her safety than my own. The least whisper, a pat on the neck, or a stroke down the beautiful face that she used to throw up towards mine, would control her; and never for a moment did she endanger me. This was little short of a daily miracle, when we consider the nature of the country, her character, and my unskilfulness. It can only be accounted for on the ground of that wondrous power which, having willed me to work for a time in the vineyard of the Lord, rendered me immortal till the work should be done. Rather, I should say, in the words of Cooper, which I have ventured to slightly vary—