When persons are pursuing their business or pleasure on the road, precise formality, and attention to the strict rules of riding, would interrupt their enjoyment.
The rudiments of the art being once known, when on the road, no more of it is to be applied, than will, with the greatest ease, facilitate our designs. When nothing more is required of the horse, than to perform the natural paces, he will walk, trot, and gallop with the greatest freedom. The rider participates in the like ease, or unrestrained liberty, but this ease or inattention, is not to suffer unseemly habits to take place, such as the back and shoulders to get round, the head to shake, the leg to dangle, and beat against the horse’s side.
These errors may creep on a person, who has not been confirmed in the principles by sufficient practice; but when habits of good riding are once firmly established, the ease and liberty the rider assumes, will not exceed propriety, risk her security, nor abandon, nor baffle her horse,—her hand will keep its situation and properties, though the body be turned to any extreme for the purpose of conversing, and the like, nor will the body by any freedom it takes, throw itself out of balance, nor take the liberty, when it cannot be done with safety. This freedom and ease, so desirable and so universally admired, is affected by every person who is in the habit of riding, but with this difference, some possess system, with negligence, and ease, and others merely negligence and ease, without system.
A lady’s horse should be sure footed, but the best become careless. When a horse trips, he should be kept more than usually collected. It is useless to whip a horse after stumbling, as it is also after shying, for it is clear, he would not run the risk of breaking his knees nor his nose if he could help it. A bad horsewoman throws her horse down, which a good horsewoman does not do. That is, because a bad horsewoman hurries her horse, over bad ground, or down hill, or over loose stones, or rough and broken ground, lets him flounder into difficulties, and when there, pulls him so that he cannot see, nor exert himself to get out of them and expecting chastisements, the horse springs to avoid it, before he has recovered his feet, and goes down with a tremendous impetus; if she have to cross a rut to the right, she probably forces her horse across it, when the right foot is on the ground; in which case, unless the horse collect himself, and jump; if he attempts to step across it, the probability is, that crossing his legs, he knocks one against the other and falls. The reverse of all this, Colonel Greenwood, writes, should be the case, if the lady have not sufficient tact to feel, which of her horse’s feet is on the ground, she must allow him his own time for crossing, which will be, when the left foot is on the ground. The rider should habitually choose her horse’s ground for him, this by practice, will become as easy to her, as choosing her own path when walking.
It is a common error to suppose, that a rider can support a horse when falling, lift him over a leap, or hold him up, they are mechanical impossibilities. Were a similar weight attached to the thin rein of a lady’s bridle, could the lady lift it with her left hand. A pull from the curb, will indeed give the horse so much pain in the mouth, that he will throw up his head, and the rider flatters herself that she has saved her horse from falling; but this error is not harmless, by so doing, she prevents his seeing to foot out any unsafe ground; and further, when an unmounted horse stumbles, nature teaches him to drop his head and neck, which relieves the shoulders of their weight, and that is the instant that the horse makes his effort to recover himself; the muscular power employed to raise the head and neck, will act to sink his knees, for as much as the rider pulls up, so much will she pull down. The great point is, to keep the horse so well balanced and in hand, with his legs well under him, that should the horse stumble, or get into difficulties, he is able to recover himself without much exertion.
When proceeding along a road, the rule is, to keep to the left side of it, but when about to pass those travelling in the same direction, though at a less speedy pace; to pass on their right. A party meeting another passes to the right, that is, the right hands of the parties meeting, are towards each other.
A gentleman riding with a lady, should be on her right side, as on that side, if the road be dirty, he does not bespatter the lady’s habit, and on that side also, he is situated next the carriages, and various objects they meet, or which may be passing near them.
If a lady find her horse become affected and uneasy in his gait, she should endeavor to ascertain the cause, the probability is, there will be found to be something wrong, in the bridle or saddle or perhaps a stone in the horse’s foot, and she should have it remedied if possible.
A lady should also habitually prevent her horse out-walking, or lagging behind her companions, she is either very unsociable, or a bad horsewoman, who does not keep abreast of them.