English Type of Lady’s Park Hack
The only gaits used in the show ring, and generally for park riding in the East, are the walk, trot, and canter. The walk should be quick, yet without tendency to jigjog; the trot square, well balanced, and with no hint of mixed gaits. There should be plenty of “all-round action,” of the hocks quite as
much as of the knees, but of course not the “high action” of the carriage horse. The canter should be free and easy, but not too high, and should always be a canter—not a shuffling go-between, nor should it be so fast as to border on a run.
Light-weight Thoroughbred Lady’s Riding Horse (Indian Flower)
The thoroughbred should be the ideal saddle horse, as he is fashioned by nature for that purpose alone. In England this is the type of “riding horse” most in vogue, and in this country he may, in a few
years, as he already has there, supplant the park hack type. However delightful he may be in the country or in the hunting-field, he is not really suitable for park riding, where a collected trot is essential and where his excitability gives the rider more than she wants. It must be borne in mind that the conditions of riding in England are entirely different from what they are in this country. Here we ride for exercise; there they hunt for exercise and ride for rest. Therefore, what they want for riding is a horse with very easy gaits who does not give the rider any exertion. In England there is very little riding on hard roads, as there is here. They almost always ride over turf and they have bridle paths on nearly all the roads. The English “riding horse” I have referred to is a thoroughbred or three-quarter bred, and the trot is not one of his gaits. His canter is very easy and he gives the Englishwoman just what she wants in the way of rest and fresh air. With us, however, but few women hunt, and when they ride they want exercise and want, therefore, a horse that will give them more to do. They find this in a horse with a good swinging trot, but they would not find it in the thoroughbred.
A very strong strain of thoroughbred blood is needed to produce the best type of saddle horse and,
aside from their suitableness for park riding, many thoroughbreds, properly trained and judiciously selected as to conformation, make horse show winners.
Riding a thoroughbred is altogether different from riding any other kind of a horse. It is then that all the niceties of the art of riding are called into play, not so much as regards the seat, for his gaits are easy, but the hands must be more than usually light, more than usually firm, and more than usually quick in their communication between the mind of the rider and the mouth of the horse. In fact, I am going to say the mind of the horse too, for of good gray matter the thoroughbred possesses an ample share. Thoroughbreds are so excitable and so hot-blooded that only experienced riders with good hands can manage them, and they are very unsafe for those who have not mastered the art. They are hard to manage when ridden in company with other horses, and they are so fussy and unreliable that they afford but little pleasure except to an accomplished horsewoman.