The Barb and the Bridle / A Handbook of Equitation for Ladies, and Manual of Instruction in the Science of Riding, from the Preparatory Suppling Exercises

by active 1866-1874 Robert Henderson

If a horse has been broken, so as to be obedient to the hand and leg of a man, and steady to sights and sounds, it is considered by many that the animal has only to be ridden with a skirt, and accustomed to strike off without hesitation with its off legs in the canter, and it is fit to carry a lady.

This is a great mistake. It is true that teaching it to canter collectedly with its off legs is necessary, as well as habituating it to the skirt, but there are other and important matters to be considered which are too often overlooked.

In the first place, a man, to break a horse properly for a lady, must be sufficiently well up at his craft to train the animal to obey the lightest possible application of the aids of the leg; because a lady, having but one leg to the horse, cannot give him the same amount of support that can be given by a man, who applies both.

To supply the absence of the leg on the off side, in the case of the lady, the only substitute is the whip. But all men accustomed to breaking know that the effect of the whip is altogether different from that of the leg, and that while the whip is occasionally necessary to rouse a slightly lazy horse, and put him into his bridle, in the case of one very free, or at all hot, the whip must be used with great caution by a lady. As I have remarked elsewhere, most young horses are inclined to strike off in the canter with the near leg, which is most unpleasant to the fair equestrian. To correct this, the breaker applies certain well-known aids, which it is unnecessary here to repeat. But in order to confirm the horse in his lesson of cantering with his off leg, the man must give the animal a considerable amount of support with both his own and both hands. If this is continued after the horse is advanced to the stage of breaking where the trainer begins to fit him for a lady, and carried on until she rides him, he will be far from a pleasant mount to her, because, missing the support of the man's legs, the horse will not understand the light and delicate ones which the lady will use. It is necessary, therefore, that the breaker should accustom his charge readily to obey the slightest indication of the rider's will, and then ride him in a side-saddle, in precisely the same way as he will afterwards be ridden by the lady.

I remember once seeing a man, really a capital rider in his own way, giving a lady a lesson on a horse of her own which he had broken for her. Both master and pupil were sorely puzzled—the former because the horse would not obey the hand and leg of the rider, as directed by the master, and the pupil, by finding that all she was doing produced an effect diametrically opposite to that which was intended. Perhaps the horse, too, was as much puzzled to know what to be at as either rider or master.

The animal was a very shapely chesnut, nearly thoroughbred, very good-tempered, but full of courage. Evidently he was unaccustomed to carry a lady, and was beginning to give indications that his temper was getting up. The object was to canter him to the right round the school, "going large," as it is technically called. He had trotted to the other hand well enough, and the young lady had ridden him fairly; but when turned to the reverse hand, and the word "canter" was given, he evidently missed the support afforded by the legs of a male rider. When pressed gently forward to a shortened rein, he stepped very high in his trot. "Touch him on the right shoulder with the whip sharply, miss," said the riding master. In answer to the sharp cut of the whip, the horse jumped off passionately in a canter, with his near legs first—a dangerous thing when going round the school to the right. "Stop him, miss," said the preceptor; "take him into the corner, bend his head to the right. Now the leg and whip again." The same result followed—the lady flurried as well as her horse. The riding master at last took the lady off, and mounted the horse himself; but he rode with a man's seat, not a woman's. The horse cantered collectedly and well into his bridle when the master asked him. "You see, miss, it is easy enough," said the master; "a little patience, and you will do it presently." But the second essay of the lady was as unsuccessful as the first; nay more so, as the horse was getting very angry. "What can be the reason?" at last said the lady, halting her horse; "I must be very stupid." "It is some peculiarity in your hand," said the master, soothingly; "it will be all right by-and-by." "Do you think," said the lady, deferentially, "that the difference of seat—your leg on the right side—has anything to do with it?" "Not a bit," replied the preceptor. But it had all to do with it, and eventually the lady had to be put upon an old school hack for her ride in the park, leaving her own horse at the riding school.

When the lady was gone the master observed, "Most extraordinary thing! I can't get this horse to do wrong, and Miss A. cannot get him to go a yard." "Did you ever ride him in a side-saddle?" I inquired. "I? Certainly not," was the answer; "no man can break a horse in a side-saddle" (this was true enough as regards the early stages), "and," continued the professor, "I can't ride a bit in a side-saddle." The latter observation settled the matter in my mind; for it has been always clear to me that, if a man cannot acquire a true and firm seat himself on a side-saddle, it is impossible he can teach a woman to ride. He may teach her to sit square and upright on an old horse that has been carrying women for years, but "going about" on such an animal is not riding—my idea of which, as regards a lady, is, that on a horse still full of courage and action (though not too fresh or short of work) the rider should be able, by the application of aids sound in theory and practice, to render the horse thoroughly obedient to her will. This is riding. Cantering along upon an old tittuping hack is merely taking horse exercise in a mild form.

As regards a man riding in a side-saddle, I may say that some years ago a young friend of mine, now deceased—than whom there never was a better man with hounds—hunted in a side-saddle for three or four seasons before his death. He had injured his right foot so badly in a fall as to necessitate amputation at the instep, and he preferred the side-saddle seat to the awkward and disagreeable feeling occasioned by trusting to a cork foot in the off-side stirrup. Some of your readers may probably remember the dashing youngster I allude to, who was always to be seen going true and straight in the front rank, when he hunted eighteen years ago with the Royal Buckhounds. I can safely say that the horses he rode in his side-saddle were the perfection of ladies' hunters, and that he was one of the best instructors of female equitation I ever met.

I repeat, then, that before a horse can be pronounced fit to carry a lady he should have been ridden in a side-saddle for some time by a man.

Riding in this way, the breaker's first object should be to make the horse walk truly and fairly up to his bridle, without hurrying or shuffling in his pace, than which nothing is more unpleasant to a lady, especially if she is engaged in conversation with a companion. Of course it is indispensable that a horse should be a good natural walker, but at the same time the animal should be carefully taught to work right up to his bit in this most important pace; action in the others can then be easily developed.