This lesson, which will last, very likely, two or three days, may appear to some of no practical utility, but it is indispensable alike to your comfort when mounted, to the safety of those who accompany or meet you, and to the continued education of your horse. Who has not seen an untrained animal force his rider to dismount to lift some gate-latch which was really within easy reach, or prancing about in a crowd, to the terror and vexation of his neighbors, or in momentary danger of hooking his legs into the wheels of passing vehicles?
Now, if you trample on any one, or upset a light vehicle, though you risk, and perhaps break, your own bones, yet you are liable for damages; and this fact is so well known that a suit will be promptly begun against you. Besides, for your own sake you must have it in your power to get your horse’s haunches, and with them your own person, out of danger from careless or mischievous drivers—just as a cavalryman has to save his horse from a slash or thrust.
[LESSON VIII.]
MOUNTED.
To Advance at Touch of Heel and Stop at Touch of Whip on Back.—Your horse’s education must now be carried on from the saddle, and should he never have been ridden, it will be prudent to have a man mount him first upon a man’s saddle, and afterwards upon your side-saddle, with a blanket wrapped around the legs to simulate a skirt. If the previous lessons have been carefully given, you will have no trouble in making him stand wherever you please while you mount, nor in getting him “light in hand” afterwards. First, however, see that the saddle fits snugly in its place, and that the girths are good and in order. If there are more than two, let the third be loose while the others are tight. The writer once saw a powerful horse burst two good English girths by a sudden bound and throw off his rider, saddle and all. If the girths and saddle are not very strong, put a broad, thin strap—a surcingle will do—over all.
GETTING A HORSE ACCUSTOMED TO SKIRTS.
(An example of the “flying trot.”)
Being mounted, gather the reins all into the left hand in the following manner: Draw the right snaffle-rein between the fore and middle fingers, and the left snaffle rein under the little finger into the palm, throwing the ends forward together over the first finger, to be held by the thumb; in like manner draw the curb-reins into the palm on each side of the ring-finger, the left rein, of course, below, and the right above it, throwing the ends, like those of the snaffle, forward over the fore-finger and under the thumb. Now taking the curb-rein by the seam, draw it through your fingers till both reins fall equally on the bit; then do the same by the snaffle, but draw it so much tighter than the curb that the latter will hang loose, and any movement of your hand will be felt through the snaffle. Grasp all the reins firmly, your hand back upward, with wrist a little bent and elbow near your side, so that if the horse, stumbling, thrust his nose suddenly out, you will not be jerked from the saddle.