Transcriber's Note: The Contents have been moved from the end of the book to the beginning.
CONTENTS.
| PAGE | ||
| I. | Patroclus and I | [19] |
| II. | Saddles and Seats | [22] |
| III. | Patroclus on a Rack | [28] |
| IV. | The Rack and Single-Foot | [29] |
| V. | Patroclus Trotting | [32] |
| VI. | Thoroughbred or Half-Bred | [33] |
| VII. | The Saddle Mania | [35] |
| VIII. | Park-Riding | [37] |
| IX. | A Fine Horse not necessarily a Good Hack | [39] |
| X. | Soldiers have Stout Seats | [41] |
| XI. | A Gate and a Brook | [44] |
| XII. | The Old Trooper | [48] |
| XIII. | Instruction in Riding | [49] |
| XIV. | Chilly Fox-Hunting | [51] |
| XV. | Is Soldier or Fox-Hunter the Better Rider? | [55] |
| XVI. | The School-Rider | [56] |
| XVII. | Patroclus happy | [59] |
| XVIII. | Photography versus Art | [61] |
| XIX. | A One-Man Horse | [69] |
| XX. | Baucher's Favorite Saddle Horse | [70] |
| XXI. | Patroclus sniffs a Friend | [73] |
| XXII. | Riding-Schools and School-Riding | [74] |
| XXIII. | Is Schooling of Value? | [76] |
| XXIV. | Manuals of Training | [82] |
| XXV. | Result of Training | [83] |
| XXVI. | Qualities of the Horse | [86] |
| XXVII. | Dress, Saddles, and Bridles | [87] |
| XXVIII. | Mounting | [89] |
| XXIX. | How to hold the Reins | [92] |
| XXX. | How to begin Training | [94] |
| XXXI. | Penelope's Unrestrained Courage | [97] |
| XXXII. | Hints before beginning to train a Horse | [98] |
| XXXIII. | Guiding by the Neck | [104] |
| XXXIV. | What an Arched Neck means | [109] |
| XXXV. | Flexions of the Neck | [113] |
| XXXVI. | Flexions of the Croup | [116] |
| XXXVII. | The Canter | [121] |
| XXXVIII. | Leading with either Shoulder | [125] |
| XXXIX. | The Horse's Natural Lead | [131] |
| XL. | The Best Way to teach the Lead | [135] |
| XLI. | Change of Lead in Motion | [138] |
| XLII. | Suggestions | [141] |
| XLIII. | How to begin Jumping | [143] |
| XLIV. | The Reins in the Jump | [148] |
| XLV. | Odds and Ends of Leaping | [152] |
| XLVI. | Hunting and Road-Riding | [155] |
| XLVII. | Advantages of True Rack | [157] |
| XLVIII. | Who is the Best Rider? | [160] |
| XLIX. | Vale! | [166] |
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
| 1. | Patroclus | [Frontispiece.] |
| 2. | A Quiet Amble | [12] |
| 3. | The Rack or Running Walk | [24] |
| 4. | A Sharp Single-Foot | [36] |
| 5. | An Easy Canter | [48] |
| 6. | A Ten-Mile Trot | [60] |
| 7. | Rising to a Hurdle | [72] |
| 8. | Flying a Hurdle | [84] |
| 9. | Clean above it | [96] |
| 10. | Taking off at Water | [108] |
| 11. | Doing it Handily | [120] |
| 12. | A Twenty-Foot Jump | [132] |
| 13. | About to Land | [144] |
| 14. | Landing | [156] |
BEFORE MOUNTING.
But a few months since, the author, whose thirty odd years in the saddle in many parts of the world have, he trusts, taught him that modesty which should always be bred of usage, was showing some of the instantaneous photographs of his horse Patroclus to a group of Club men. Most of the gentlemen were old friends, but one of the photographs having been passed to a by-stander, whose attire marked him as belonging to the most recently developed Boston type of horsemen, elicited, much to his listeners' entertainment, the remark that "naw man can wide in a saddle like that, ye know, not weally wide, ye know! naw fawm, ye know! wouldn't be tolewated in our school, ye know!" The author was informed by a mutual acquaintance that the gentleman was taking a course of lessons at the swellest riding academy of the city, and had recently imported an English gelding. In deference to such excellent authority, whose not unkindly meant, if somewhat brusquely uttered, criticism may be said to have inspired these pages, otherwise perhaps without a suitable motif, an explanation appears to be called for, lest by some other youthful equestrian critics the physician be advised to heal himself.
The exclusive use of the English hunting-rig and crop for all kinds and conditions of men at all times and in all places is well understood by old horsemen to be but a matter of fashion which time may displace in favor of some other novelty. For their proper purpose they are undeniably the best. But to the newly fledged equestrian who makes them his shibboleth, and who discards as "bad form" any variation upon the road from what is eminently in place after hounds, the author, with an admiration for the excellencies of the English seat derived from half a dozen years' residence in the Old Country and many a sharp run in the flying-counties, and with the consciousness that, if tried in the balance of to-day's Anglomania, his own seat, as shown in some of the illustrations, may chance to be found wanting, desires to explain that, during the Civil War, outrageous fortune, among other slings and arrows, sent him to the rear with the loss of a leg; but that far from giving up a habit thus become all the more essential because he could no longer safely sit a flat saddle, he concluded to supplement his lack of grip (as the Marquis of Anglesea for a similar reason had done before him) by the artificial support which is afforded in the rolls and pads of a somerset or demi-pique, as well as to adopt the seat best suited to his disability. And it was such a saddle, of a pattern perhaps too pronounced to suit even the author's eye, however comfortable and safe,—particularly so in leaping, which provoked the censure, perhaps quite justifiable according to the light of the critic, which has been quoted above. This variation, however, by no means conflicts with the author's belief in, and constant advocacy of, the flat English saddle in its place. But he has seen so many accomplished riders in quite different saddles, that he became long ago convinced that the English tree by no means affords the only perfect seat. In fact, the saddle best suited to universal use, that is, the one which might best serve a man under any conditions, approaches, in his opinion, more nearly the modified military saddle of to-day than the hunting type.
Nor because a local fashion, set but yesterday, prescribes strict adherence to a style he cannot follow, is the author less ready to venture upon giving a friendly word of advice to many of our young and aspiring riders. There are not a few gentlemen in Boston, whose months in the saddle number far less than the author's years, to whose courage and discretion as horsemen he yields his very honest admiration, and whose stanch hunters he is happy to follow across country, nor ashamed if he finds he has lost them from sight. He regrets to say that he has also seen not a few who affect to sneer at a padded saddle or a horse with a long tail, who seem incapable of throwing their heart across a thirty inch stone wall in a burst after hounds, although upon the road they seek to impress one as constantly riding to cover.