As soon as the pupil has struck the cadence (and, once found, it comes easily afterward), she should discontinue the use of her right hand on the pommel, and the teacher may be more exacting as to the regularity of her position than is necessary in her first efforts. During rising to the trot, the upper part of the body should be very slightly bent forward; and, if the teacher notices that the pupil is rising from right to left, or left to right, instead of perpendicularly, he should make her put the fingers of her right hand on the top of her saddle behind, and thus give herself a little help in rising, until she gets used to it. Each time that the rider wishes to make her horse trot, she should sit close while he changes from a walk to a trot, and until he is trotting as fast as is necessary, because he does not arrive at that speed instantly, but by hurrying his steps, so that there is no regular cadence of the trot to which she can rise; and she should follow the same rule when she makes him slacken his pace before coming to a walk.
The teacher must be careful to see that the hands do not follow the movements of the body, as they must keep quite still, the arms moving at the elbow.
There is not, nor can there be, any approximate calculation of the height to rise, as that depends entirely upon the gait of the horse. If he takes short steps, the rider must rise oftener, and consequently not so high; but, if he is long-gaited, she must rise high, in order not to get back into the saddle before he is ready to take his second step.
[CHAPTER III.]
Classes—Successive and individual movements—The gallop—Leaping—Suggestions for riding on the road.
When the pupil has taken from ten to fifteen lessons, she ought to be able to execute the movements she has studied with a certain degree of correctness, and to remain a full hour on horseback without fatigue; and she should then, if possible, be placed in a class composed of not less than twelve nor more than twenty-four members. Children in a class should be of the same sex, and, as near as may be, of the same age and equestrian experience. It is not necessary that the class should meet every day; it may come together one, two, or three times a week, under the guidance of the same teacher, and this need not prevent a pupil who is in it from coming to the school at other times to practice the various movements by herself.
All concerned should do their best to have all the members of the class present, and the school should be kept clear of other riders during such classes. The presence of spectators is objectionable, particularly where there is a class of young girls. Granted that they are the parents, for instance, of one or two of the pupils: to the rest they are strangers, who cause constraint, as the teacher is obliged to criticise, correct, and, in a word, instruct, in a loud voice, so that the observation made to one may serve as a suggestion to all.
The difference of progress between classes and individual pupils is so great that one may calculate that, after one hundred private lessons, a pupil will not ride so well as if she had taken fifty lessons in class. In a class she is obliged to keep her horse at a certain distance from the others, and in his own place, and, in her turn, go through exercises directed by a will other than her own, while the constant repetition of principles by the teacher fixes them in her memory. On the other hand, the private pupil takes her time to make her horse go through a movement; and, that movement once understood, there is no reason for the repetition of the explanations which can alone make the theory and principle of riding familiar. I am certainly not an advocate for theory without practice; but I insist that a rider must know what she ought to do before she can do it really well, as all good results in riding are obtained by long practice, based on a rational theory.