Hints on Horsemanship, to a Nephew and Niece / or, Common Sense and Common Errors in Common Riding

ands should be used to the reins.-A soldier's horse must turn on the wrong rein.-Common riders generally t

urn to the right to pass the hand to the right. By this the right rein is slackened, and the left rein is tightened, across the horse's neck, and the horse is required to turn to the

anded style. The military style is, and must ever be essentially a one-handed style, for the soldier must have his right hand at liberty for his weapons. The recruit is indeed made to ride with a single snaffle in two hands, but only as a preparatory step to the one-

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of the fourth finger only. The reins held in this way are as easily and as quickly shortened, by drawing them with the right hand through the left, as if they were separated by the fourth finger only. I always adopted th

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mned to the same system. On the contrary, I would have ladies as well as gentlemen use both hands to the reins, whether of the curb or of the snaffle, somewhat as the rough-rider or colt-breaker uses the reins of a single snaffle; but

ghtly touching the hip-the lower part of the arm square to the upper-little finger on a level with the elbow-wrist rounded outwards-the back of the hand to the front-the thumb pointing across the body, and three inches from it." In this position we are taught that "the little finger of the bridle-hand has four lines of action-first, towards the breast (to stop or rein back); second, towards the right shoulder (to turn to the right); third, towards the left shoulder (to turn to the left); fourth, towa

require Taglioni to chasser over a ploughed field. For single-handed indications, supposing them to be correctly given-which, as I have said, I have never known; but supposing them to be correctly given-they are not sufficiently distinct to turn a horse, except in a case of optimism. That is, supposing for a short time a perfectly broken horse, in perfect temper, perfectly on his haunches, going perfectly up to his bit, and on perfect ground. Without all these perfections-suppose even the circumstance of the horse being excited o

ectly, and a bearing-rein, a severe bit, and a whip, give you every advantage in keeping your horse collected; yet you will find them wholly inefficient. The soldier, who is compelled to turn to the right by wo

would hold the most difficult three-year-old to the steady stroke of the two-mile course, and place him as a winner to half-a-length-who in the hunting-field would ride the hottest, or the most phlegmatic made hunter, with equal skill, through all difficulties of ground, and over every species of fence, with admirable precision and equality of hand-or who on the exercise ground would plac

d hesitation of the horse; next the violence of the rider; then the despair and rebellion of the horse. The finish is a fractured limb from a rear or a runaway. The poor brute is set down as restive and in fact becomes more or less a misanthrope for the rest of his days. I have seen the gentle and brave, under such circumstances, act very much like the cruel and cowardly; that is to say, first rough an innocent animal for their own fault, and then yield to his resistance. It is in consequenc

st obstinate will not long resist. But as may be supposed, it takes a long time to make him understand that he is to turn to the right when the left rein is pulled, and to the left when the right rein is pulled. And it is only the meek-spirited and docile who will do this at all. Such, however, is the general docility of the half-bred horse, that a great proportion of them are, after long ill-usage, taught to answer these false indications, in the same way that a carthorse is brought to turn right or left b

iece of iron, or a blow with a whip, or a kick in the side with an armed heel, however these may indicate to him the wishes or commands of his rider. I have also used the term bearing on the horse's mouth instead of appui, since to those who do not understand French appui will convey no meaning at all,-and to those who do understand French it will convey the false ideas of the necessity and power