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

In the trot the breaker should gradually accustom the animal to go with the least possible amount of support from the leg. This he will easily do by using a very long whip, and, when he feels the horse hanging back from his work, touching him lightly on the hind quarters instead of closing the leg.

In the foregoing I am assuming that the horse has been previously well broken, mouthed, and balanced to carry a man. To teach a horse readily to obey such delicate aids of hand or leg, as a lady can apply, I have found the following method most effectual: Use a side-saddle which has no head crutch on the off side; this gives more freedom of action to the right hand. Ride without a stirrup; your balance is sure then to be true. Use a long whip, and wear a spur on the left heel, furnished with short and not very sharp rowels. Make your horse walk well, and trot well up to his bridle, with as little leg as possible, touching him sharply with the spur if he tries to shirk his work. The long whip on the off side will prevent him from throwing his haunches in. Before cantering, collect him well. Keep his forehand well up, and his haunches under him. Keep his head well bent to the right; take him into the corner of the school or manége; then, keeping him up to his work rather by the aid of the spur and whip than by the leg, strike him lightly off to the right. A sharp touch of the spur behind the girth, and a light firm feeling of both reins, the inward the strongest, will cause him to strike off true. Where no riding house or walled manége is available, the above may be successfully carried out in a small paddock, having tolerably high fences and corners nearly square.

Manner in riding the horse at this stage of his breaking is of vital importance. The hands, while kept well back, should be light and lively; the whip and spur (never to be unnecessarily applied) should be used so as to let the horse know that they are always ready if he hangs back from his work; and the rider, sitting easily and flexibly in the saddle, should ride with spirit and vivacity, making much of the horse from time to time as he answers with alacrity to the light and lively aids applied. A dull rider makes a dull horse, and vice versâ. Gradually, a well bred, good tempered animal will learn to answer smartly to the slightest indication of the rider's will, and while giving a good appui to the hand, will convey a most enjoyable feeling from his well-balanced elastic movement, without the necessity of strong or rough aids. In a very brief time the long whip can be dispensed with, and all inclination to throw the haunches in will cease. The animal has then acquired the aplomb necessary to fit him for the lady equestrian. He should then be taught by gradually inductive lessons to walk quietly up to his fences and jump freely, his haunches well under him; and subsequently to execute his leap from a steady, collected canter, without rush or hurry.

During the latter part of each lesson he should be ridden with a skirt or rug on.

He should then be accustomed to all kinds of sights and sounds, from the rattle of a wheelbarrow to the pattering file firing at a review, and the loud report of a great gun; and especially he should be habituated to having all sorts of colours about him.

I well remember seeing a fine horse, that had been some time in the breaker's hand, and was perfect in his mouth and paces, put a general officer and his lady into a complete fix. The lady went to a review, having been assisted into her saddle by her husband in his mufti costume before he dressed for parade. After the review, the lady dismounted to partake of luncheon in a marquee, and, after the repast, the general proceeded to put his wife on her horse; but the gallant steed by no means understood the dancing plume of red and white feathers in the officer's cocked hat, and he would none of him. He snorted, pawed the ground in terror, ran back, and did everything but stand still, although he had stood the marching past and firing well enough. Unluckily the groom had been sent home, and there was nobody in mufti on the ground who could put the lady on her saddle. Even when the general took off his cocked hat, the horse, having taken a dislike to him, would not let his master come near him. Finally, as there was no carriages on the ground, the lady had to walk a considerable distance, her horse led by an orderly. The above goes to show that to make a horse perfect for a lady, nothing likely to occur in the way of sights or sounds should be overlooked. If the horse possesses the requisite power and form to fit him for a hunter, and the lady for whom he is intended graces the hunting field with her presence, the animal should be ridden quietly in cubhunting time as often as possible, in long trots, beside the hounds going to covert, and accustomed gradually to the music of the "sylvan choir," to stand quietly at the covert side, and take no heed of scarlet coats. If the horse has been otherwise well broken, the above is simply a question of time and patience.

Let me now say something with regard to saddlery and appointments. The most important of these, of course, is the side-saddle, as to the form of which considerable diversity of opinion exists.

My own experiences induce me to believe in a saddle which is as nearly as possible flat from between the pommels to the cantle; any dip in the stretcher of the tree, while it renders the lady's seat less secure, has also the effect of throwing her weight too much upon the horse's forehand, and thus cramping his action. When a lady has acquired skill and confidence in her riding, a saddle with a very low-cut pommel on the off side is best, because it not only admits of the rider getting her hands lower (for which occasion may frequently occur), but on the off side it gives the lady and the horse a far better appearance, the high off side pommel spoiling the graceful contour of figure in both. Worked or plain off-side flaps are matters of taste, and have nothing to do with utility. The stirrup should be a Victoria, well padded. The leather should be fitted on the near side, in a similar manner to a man's stirrup leather, and be quite independent of the quarter strap. The reason for this is obvious. If you fit a lady's stirrup leather ever so carefully after she is up, you cannot tell how much the horse "will give up" in his girth after an hour's riding, or even less; and the leather which takes up on the off side may give to the extent of three or four holes, thereby greatly incommoding the rider, especially if she is in the hunting field and has to jump her horse, as it is ten to one, although she has the power of pulling up the leather herself, if, in the excitement of the chase, either she or anybody else will notice the rendering of the leather, and a drop leap may bring the rider to grief, whereas the near side arrangement is a fixture, and always reliable. For really comfortable riding, I believe also that it is quite as necessary that a saddle should be made in such proportion as to fit the lady, as that it should fit the horse. Even a thoroughly accomplished horsewoman cannot ride easily in a saddle that is too short from pommel to cantle, or too narrow in the seat. In either case, both discomfort and ungainly appearance are the result; while to a lady of slight petite figure, a saddle too long from front to rear is equally unsightly, though possibly not quite so uncomfortable to the rider. Broad girths of the best materials are indispensable. There should be three of them. The quarter strap or girth should lead from the near side fork of the tree to a buckle piece attached to a ring on the off-side quarter, the ring giving the quarter strap a better bearing. A crupper should never be used; a horse that requires one is not fit for a lady. Saddle cloths are unnecessary to a carefully-pannelled saddle, and hide the symmetry of the horse. Breastplates or neck straps may be used for hunting, or the fitting of martingales (necessary sometimes). But the less leather about the horse, where it can be dispensed with, the better he will look.

As to bridles, as a rule, I maintain that a lady's horse properly broken should ride right into an ordinary double bridle, bit, and bridoon, the port of the bit proportioned to the contour and setting on of the horse's head and neck, as should also be the length of the cheek piece and jaw of the bit; while the question of a plain or twisted bridoon or snaffle must be regulated by the hand of the rider and the mouth of the horse. For park or promenade riding, fashion of late years inclines to a single rein bridle or "Hanoverian," or hard and sharp. No doubt they are very sightly and neat in appearance; but with a high-couraged horse they require very nice and finished hands, and in the majority of cases, in my humble opinion, are safe only for the most accomplished female riders.

I leave the question of bridle-fronts, bound with ribbon of pink, blue, or yellow, to the taste of my readers; when neatly put on and fresh, they look gay in the park. But either there or in the hunting field, I believe more in the plain leather front, as having, if I may so express it, a more workmanlike appearance.