PATROCLUS AND PENELOPE:
A Chat in the Saddle. By Theodore Ayrault Dodge, Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel, U.S.A. (Retired List), author of "The Campaign of Chancellorsville," "A Bird's-Eye View of the Civil War," etc. Illustrated with fourteen phototypes of the Horse in motion. In one volume, octavo, gilt top, half roan, $3.00.
Contents: Patroclus and I; Saddles and Seats; Patroclus on a Rack; The Rack and Single-Foot; Patroclus Trotting; Thoroughbred or Half-Bred; The Saddle Mania; Park-Riding; A Fine Horse not necessarily a Good Hack; Soldiers have Stout Seats; A Gate and a Brook; The Old Trooper; Instruction in Riding; Chilly Fox-Hunting; Is Soldier or Fox-Hunter the Better Rider? The School-Rider; Patroclus Happy; Photography versus Art; A One-Man Horse; Baucher's Favorite Saddle Horse; Patroclus sniffs a Friend; Riding-Schools and School-Riding; Is Schooling of Value? Manuals of Training; Result of Training; Qualities of the Horse; Dress, Saddles, and Bridles; Mounting; How to hold the Reins; How to begin Training; Penelope's Unrestrained Courage; Hints before beginning to train a Horse; Guiding by the Neck; What an Arched Neck means; Flexions of the Neck; Flexions of the Croup; The Canter; Leading with either Shoulder; The Horse's Natural Lead; The Best Way to teach the Lead; Change of Lead in Motion; Suggestions; How to begin Jumping; The Reins in the Jump; Odds and Ends of Leaping; Hunting and Road-Riding; Advantages of True Rack; Who is the Best Rider? Vale!
This book is written from an experience extending over thirty years,—in the English hunting-field, the Prussian army, the plains of the West, active service during the Civil War, and daily riding everywhere. The author has studied equestrianism as an art, and, although believing in the Haute Ecole of Baucher, enjoys with equal zest a ride to hounds or a gallop on the western prairies.
The experienced equestrian will be delighted by the author's breezy talk and thorough knowledge of his subject. The young horseman who may have purchased a colt just broken to harness can by the use of its hints make him as clever as Patroclus. Even the man who rides but a dozen times a year will be interested in the book, while the every-day reader will be charmed by its simplicity, geniality, and heartiness.
NOTICES OF THE PRESS.
The reader must feel that he is in distinctively good company. It is a running commentary on saddle-riding, and gives the reader much the same advantages he would have from a season's riding in company with a gentleman who has ridden in all countries, on all sorts of animals, and under all sorts of conditions…. One of the most attractive of recent books.—Boston Advertiser.
We all love Isaak Walton's talks about fish or John Burroughs's essays on birds; in the same spirit is this delightful book of Col. Dodge's…. It is a familiar chat of a man who knows all about horsemanship and can tell you how to mount or ride, what saddle or bridle to use, and, at the same time, touch upon life in the saddle with words which will make your blood tingle.—Saturday Evening Gazette (Boston).
It consists of a series of essay-like chapters written in a lively, chatty, conversational manner which makes it charming reading. The advice is full of hints and suggestions to the experienced horseman as well as of instructions of the utmost value to the new initiate in the equestrian art. We are in sympathy with the author before the first page is turned.—Yale Literary Magazine (New Haven).