Cantering is not a difficult motion by any means. When attempting it your attendant should make your horse lead with the off fore-leg, although, should it be your intention to ride occasionally on the left side of the saddle, you must accustom him to lead now and again with the near. Sit well back, and when your mount moves in a circle, lean just sufficiently to the right to enable you to see his feet.
When you are at home in the canter you must commence to practice the trot, which will be to you the beginning of sorrows. Do not at first make any effort at rising in your saddle, but sit very close, and prepare to bear the unpleasantness of the bumping—for it must be borne for awhile—until you have become accustomed to the motion. As you will of course have your hair flowing loosely, and a wide easy-fitting jacket on, you will suffer fewer discomforts than if differently apparelled.
To rise in the saddle, you must keep the left heel well down, and move the leg as little as possible. To sway it like a pendulum will not help you one bit. Keep your hands perfectly steady—your arms to your sides—your left foot slightly pressing the stirrup as the horse throws out his near fore leg, while you lift yourself very slightly at the precise instant that his other leg is advanced. It will take you a long while to accomplish this. Over and over again you will sigh with disappointment, and say involuntarily, “I cannot do it!” But you can, and will in time, if you will only persevere. Few things that are worth learning can be acquired in a hurry; a young robust girl, with plenty of courage and go about her, will often learn how to “stick on” in an incredibly short space of time—but will look supremely ridiculous notwithstanding, both then and later; to acquire the niceties of riding, however, and become an adept at them, is a degree of perfection to which comparatively few ladies ever attain. The accomplishment of rising and falling nicely in the saddle, in time to the trot of the horse, can only be acquired by constant practice; I do not believe that the fact of having a master riding alongside of you, and saying “one, two,” “one, two,” until you are half demented, will ever teach it, although steady perseverance on your own part may, and will.
“THE RIGHT AND THE WRONG OF IT.”
There are three things that I want you particularly to avoid. First, an ugly churning movement, which is hideous to look at and distressing to the horse; second, a disposition to ride with your elbows extended, or your left hand on hip or thigh, or placed at the back of your waist; and third, a habit of stooping forward in the trot and hanging over to the near side, a fault which is extremely usual with lady riders. I give an illustration of this unsightly position, by way of warning; supplemented by one of a figure seated correctly upon the saddle, while her horse is trotting at the rate of eight or nine miles an hour.
As soon as you are perfectly mistress of the art of riding gracefully from balance, and can walk, canter, and trot, both fast and slowly, without any assistance save that which your grip of the pommels and slight help from the stirrup combine to afford you, the latter adjunct may be discarded altogether for awhile, and you may ride for an hour or so every day without it. You will not take very long to practice this; indeed, the only inconvenience arising from it, at all worth considering, will be a certain tired feeling in the left leg, as though the limb wanted dreadfully to have something to support it—but, believe me, a very few days of steady practice will enable you to dispense with stirrup aid altogether, and not to feel at all incommoded by doing so. In a week’s time at furthest you will be able to ride quite as easily without the stirrup as with it—and surely, even were it to involve a month’s hard labour, the result would prove ample remuneration. If you mean to be a huntress, there will assuredly be days when your hardly-earned accomplishment will stand you in good stead, for never yet was there a straight-going lady who did not at some time or another break a stirrup leather, or lose one, or find herself in some way or another deprived, through accident, of the support to which so many horsewomen unfortunately trust. It often happens, too, that the misfortune occurs at a provokingly long distance from home, and miles away, perhaps, from any place where repairs can be executed; therefore, the advantage (in this respect alone) of learning to ride without a stirrup must be at once apparent: to say nothing of the great benefits derivable from having taught yourself complete independence of any support from it—a thing which always ensures an erect and perfect seat.
FAULTS IN STYLE.