Side clutch. At a walk, with a quiet horse, this down clutch may be turned into the side-clutch ([Fig. 6] and [Fig. 7]); it is nearly the same as the English mode of driving, but the right rein is uppermost, which facilitates the dividing the reins and placing them together again, and when the reins are in the left hand, the right rein quits the hand between the second and third finger. This allows you to hold one rein while you slip the other, besides that the left rein is not disturbed in taking the right rein in the right hand, and in returning it to the left hand.
Cross. But the following position ([Fig. 8]) is the foundation of all fine handling, and therefore of all fine riding.
And if the pupil will only thoroughly acquire this one movement he shall have my leave to consign the rest of my book “protervis in mare Creticum portare ventis.”
We will call this movement cross, because the reins, when in one hand, are crossed inside the hand. Take the left rein with the three last fingers of the left hand, so that it enters the hand outside the little finger, and quits the hand between the first and second finger. Place the right rein in the left hand over the first and second finger, so that it enters the hand outside the first finger and quits the hand between the second and third finger, so that the whole hand is between the reins where they enter the hand, and the second finger is between them where they quit the hand. Rein in each hand [Fig. 9] shows the rein in each hand.