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

As I have ventured to point out a pleasing alteration of conventional dress in the hunting field, I trust I may be pardoned for describing what appeared to me an equally consistent innovation in summer costume for the saddle. Last summer I saw four young ladies taking an early morning canter over a breezy down in this neighbourhood. The weather was sultry. Three of the ladies wore habits of different shades of grey, according to their respective complexions, the fabric evidently very thin. Their equipment was completed by felt hats of different shapes, exceedingly becoming. The fourth lady, who was very fair, wore a perfectly white habit, made, I presume, of linen; the jacket edged with a narrow light blue cord; her headdress was a yachting hat of Tuscan straw, encircled by and also fastened under her chin with light blue ribbon. In the front of her jacket she wore a moss rosebud. She was riding an Arab-like blood horse, and being, like her companions, not only well mounted, but a first-rate horsewoman, the effect was not only pleasing to the eye and full of "dash," but, I am sure, most conducive to the comfort of the fair riders themselves. Fashion apart, I may fairly ask, would not these four ladies have looked equally well, and felt as much at their ease, in Rotten Row as on the springy Leicestershire turf? I devoutly hope yet to see some of the leaders of fashion in the gay London season inaugurate some such change as I venture to suggest; and certain I am if they did so, Rotten Row in the month of May would present a brilliant Watteau-like appearance, very different from that produced by the prevalence of sombre colours now worn by the equestrian habitués of that fashionable ride.

To return to our fair pupil (having made such selection of riding dress as is most suitable to her style). Her first outdoor rides should be taken on some quiet and little frequented road until she becomes accustomed to control her horse; for there is a great difference in the form of going of the same animal in the riding school and on the road, as many horses that require considerable rousing in the school are all action and lightheartedness out of doors.

On the road, especially when they are hard, walking and trotting should be the pace, the pupil riding equally on snaffle and curb reins; the pace free and active; the trot about eight to eight and a half the hour.

Cantering should never be practised on hard ground, as it is certain, sooner or later, to cause mischief to the horse's legs. Where there is a good broad sward by the roadside, as in the Midland counties, a good stretching canter for miles may always be had where the ground is good going. But such places are not to be found in the neighbourhood of the metropolis; and it is necessary therefore to select some open common, such as Wimbledon or Wormwood Scrubs, for cantering at first.

By degrees the pupil should be accustomed to ride through thoroughfares where there is considerable traffic, and may then make her début in Rotten Row; and here I may remark that nobody, lady or gentleman, should ever attempt riding in this fashionable equestrian resort until they have thorough command of their horses, and, indeed, know scientifically what riding is. The place, strictly speaking, is a ride intended for royalty alone; and I believe I am correct in saying that the admission of the general public to it is by no means a matter of right. Great pains are bestowed to keep it in good order throughout the year; especially, it is always soft and good for a horse's legs. But as a great concourse of equestrians, male and female, is always in the Row in the London season, and as the horses are nearly all well bred and high couraged, there is considerable danger, both to themselves and others, in persons with indifferent seats and hands venturing to ride in the fashionable crowd, the danger being considerably enhanced by the fact that such people are altogether ignorant of the risk they are running. For my own part, after seeing some corpulent citizen rehearsing "John Gilpin" in Hyde Park, with his trousers half-way up to his knees, and his feet the wrong way in the stirrups, the wonder has always been to me not that accidents occur in Rotten Row, but that there are not a great many more.

There are adventurous ladies, too, who occasionally create a sensation among the crowd, not at all flattering to themselves if they only knew the sentiments of those about them; and I really think it would be a capital plan to appoint some competent gentlemen to take charge by turns of the Row in the London season, and order the mounted police on duty quietly to see everybody out of it who was unable to command their horses. Matters, since the mounted constables have been put on, are not quite so bad as formerly; but there is plenty of room for improvement still, both as regards dogs, pretty horsebreakers, and tailors.

At all events, I recommend any man taking a young lady into the Park in the height of the London season "to have his eyes about him" in every direction, lest some "dashing equestrian," male or female, should come bucketing a horse in rear of his charge, and to keep a close watch also upon the latter—to see that she rides her horse all the time she is in the place, keeping him well into his bridle, which reduces to a minimum the chances of his suddenly flirting.

Elsewhere I have gone at considerable length into the subject of possible accidents in the Park. It is perhaps necessary that I repeat the gist of it here, which is simply that no young lady, however accomplished a horsewoman she may be, should be allowed by her friends to ride in the Row unattended by a male companion, who is not only a thoroughly good horseman, but accustomed to ride beside a lady and anticipate anything in the shape of bad manners on the part of her horse; that the attendance of a groom, who rides at a considerable distance in rear of the lady (whatever appearance of conventional style it may give to the fair equestrian), is utterly useless to her in case of accident, nay, in more than one instance that I have known has been productive of it from the groom galloping up at a critical moment, and still further exciting the lady's horse. Finally, that no lady should ever ride a horse of high breed and courage that has been allowed to "get above himself," by remaining day after day in the stable, or having insufficient work, when exercised, to keep down exuberant freshness.

There is no danger to a thoroughly good horsewoman in riding a horse that is "light-hearted." But there is risk to everybody, man or woman, in riding one "mad fresh," ready to jump out of his skin, as the grooms say, in a crowd of other horses.

For my own part, of two evils, I would rather see a lady jammed into a lane with twenty or thirty horses, after hounds had just got away, and everybody was struggling to get out, than I would see her in the Park unattended by a gentleman, and mounted upon a well-bred horse that was very fresh. I do not by any means deprecate riding in the Row. It is a splendid piece of riding ground, and relieved to some extent, as it now is, of overcrowding by the ride on the upper side of the Park; it is a glorious place for a canter. But I repeat, let everybody who takes a horse there be able to ride him, and have eyes for his neighbours as well as himself; and especially let gentlemen who attend ladies there be always on the qui vive for the adventurous Gilpins and "pretty horsebreakers."