"I rode sidewise till I was well through the town, long enough to produce a severe pain in my spine, which was not relieved for some time even after I had changed my position. It was a lovely Indian summer day, so warm that the snow on the ground looked an incongruity."
From the fact that many ladies, when in the Sandwich Islands, ride astride, and that Miss Bird found this position preferable in many respects to that which a side-saddle obliges the rider to take, I infer that ladies in England would be pleased if a change in the mode of riding were introduced.
Proprietors of circuses will perhaps permit me to offer for their consideration that by allowing this mode of riding to form a part of some of the circus performances, they might do a great deal towards causing it to be recognised by the public as the correct style, and that one great obstacle in the way of its being generally adopted by horsewomen would then be removed.
I wish also to suggest that it should be taught at several riding-schools, so that a large number of pupils may commence at the same time.
I am, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
X. Y. Z.
Sir,—The letters of your correspondent, Mrs. Power O'Donoghue, are very instructive and trustworthy, because founded upon practical experience. In her letter of last week she recommends the feeding of hunters upon cooked food. This to many sportsmen will be a new theory; not so to me, and I wish to confirm her views, but I carry them out in a more economical way. My establishment is but a small one. I cannot afford space or attendance for a cooking-house, but I believe I arrive at the same results as she does, by steeping my oats in cold water for a given number of hours, and adding a pound of Indian meal, with a handful of chopped hay and oaten straw to each feed three times a day. My horses have a constant supply of water in a manger in a convenient corner of their stables. I believe horses fed upon dry oats and hay suffer much from thirst. I observe my horses take many sups of water through the day, but take much less on the whole than when watered upon the old practice twice daily. Practically, I find my horses very healthy, strong, and enduring, and I would freely recommend the adoption of this mode of feeding hunters to my sporting friends.
Farmer.