The use of the spur in a lady's riding is objected to by some; but I cannot consider any rider (man or woman) worthy of the name who cannot use one and be safe enough in the saddle at the same time. One objection to spurs for ladies is, that they are apt to do all sorts of mischief in the event of the lady being thrown from her horse. Now, the latter is a contingency which (except in the hunting field) I do not admit as possible, if the lady has men about her who know their business in the horse way. If she has not such people about her, she is better without spurs decidedly; and there is another thing she is better without, namely, a horse of any sort.
If a horse is properly broken, and has a man about him who will give him plenty of work, and keep him from getting above himself, and his fair owner has been as well taught as her horse, she ought to be as safe on his back as in her brougham, in any kind of riding, except in exceptional cases in the hunting field. By exceptional cases I mean where a lady, unaccompanied by a good pilot, takes a line of her own when hounds are going fast in a big grass country, and rides (jealous of the field) at impracticable places. In such case she is likely enough to get down, horse and all. But even so—and I have witnessed more than one such accident—I have never found that the lady got hurt by the spur when she wore the sort I allude to; and again, I think it is only just to that clever loriner, Mr. Latchford, to say that he has invented a lady's stirrup which renders danger from it in the event of a fall next to impossible—certainly she cannot be dragged by it. In this stirrup there is no opening at the side by means of springs or complicated machinery of any sort. It requires neither diagram or drawing to describe it, because it is the perfection of mechanism—extreme simplicity. One has only to imagine an ordinary stirrup, rather elongated than usual from the opening for the leather, the bottom bar broad and flat; the latter perforated with two holes. Within the above-named stirrup another, a size smaller, but fitting nicely into it. On the lower side of the bottom bar of the inner stirrup two projections, or obtuse points of steel, which fit into the holes of the lower bar of the outer stirrup. Now, as long as the lady is in her saddle the inner stirrup must, from its mechanism, remain in its place; but in the event of her being thrown her weight acts upon the lower part of the outer stirrup, which turns over and releases the inner stirrup entirely.
To return, however, to the question proper of spurs for a lady, I must say that they are of the greatest assistance to her when, having acquired the necessary degree of steadiness on her horse, she desires to "wake him up." Too much whip is a bad thing. In riding in the country a lady must perforce have to open a bridle gate sometimes for herself, and if she is always using a whip to liven her horse up, she will find it difficult to get him to stand still, even while she opens the lightest of gates. As regards the pupil in the school, I repeat she should be habituated to wear a spur as soon as her progress justifies it.
CHAPTER X.
The Cantering Lesson (continued).
Having satisfied himself as to the proficiency of his pupil in cantering "going large"—that is, round the school or manége,—the attention of the instructor should next be directed to teaching her to make the turns and circles, and execute the "half passage" with precision.
The use of these exercises is to confirm (while riding upon both snaffle and curb reins) the steadiness of hand and seat and true balance of the rider, because, although these may appear good enough while a lady is riding her horse on a straight line, or only with the turns at the corners of the school, many shortcomings will be detected when she attempts to turn him square from the boards, or asks him to make a true circle, in which the hind legs follow exactly over the same track as the fore legs.
To commence this lesson in proper form, the pupil should collect her horse, by reining him quietly back, then move him forward well up to the hand, at a walk and at a smart active pace. When she arrives at the centre marker at the end of the school, the master should give the word "down the centre," when the rider should turn her horse square to the right (assuming, as is usually the case, that she commences her lesson to that hand). The aids for turning at a walk having been already given, it is only necessary to say that the turn down the centre requires only a trifle stronger application of the left leg, to counteract any tendency of the horse to throw his haunches outwards, and that, looking steadily to the centre marker at the other end of the school, the pupil should sight that marker well between her horse's ears, and ride true and straight to it, taking care, by closing the leg in time, that the horse does not cut off any of the ground, but plants his near fore foot close to the boards and makes the corner equally square, because whenever a horse is allowed to "cut the corners off" he endeavours to get behind the bridle, and generally succeeds. The pupil, therefore, should be cautioned in time by the instructor, and if she fails to make good every inch of ground, the word "halt" should be given and the horse reined back. Arrived about midway down the school, the turns to the right should be made square from the boards, the horse's haunches kept under him so that he does not hit the side of the school with his hind feet. His doing which is at once a proof that he is out of hand. Arrived at the centre of the school, the words "right turn" should be given again, instead of allowing the pupil to ride right across the school to the boards on the opposite side. She should then ride a couple of lengths down the centre, and again turn her horse, by word from the master, square to the right, and once more to the left, when arrived at the boards. This, repeated two or three times, is a good preparation for executing the circle; in order to facilitate the correct riding of which, the master should cause his pupil to halt her horse at the side, and himself walk over the ground he desires her to ride over. If he does this correctly, the pupil will find little difficulty in riding the circle with precision.
Starting from a point close to the boards, a couple of horses' lengths in front of the pupil, the master should make an incline to the right, at an angle of about forty-five, until he is half-way between the boards and the centre of the school; he should then bring up his left shoulder, and make another incline at the same angle to the centre of the school. Down the centre he should walk straight, the distance of a horse's length; again bring up his left shoulder, and make two inclines to the side. The figure he will thus describe does not quite represent a circle as he walks; but when the horse is called upon to move his fore and hind legs on the same track, it will be a circle in his case as nearly as possible. Having caused the pupil to move her horse forward, the instructor should give her the aids for circling, which are a double feeling of the inward rein, the horse well supported with the outward, and well kept up to the hand by the leg.