lternate feeling of the reins she should keep her
hands as low as practicable, so that the horse may lower his head and
put weight on his forehand, and consequently facilitate the movements of
his hind legs. For each step the lady should use the words of command,
"rein back," in a decided tone of voice, supposing of course that the
animal has been taught the meaning of this verbal order. However well a
lady may carry out these directions, she may not effect her purpose with
precision, because the side pulls of the respective reins will prompt
the horse, if he has not had previous training, to bring round his hind
quarters in the opposite direction. The rider can prevent him doing this
to the right by pressure of the whip on his off-flank; but owing to the
necessary shortness of her stirrup, she will not be able to prevent him
from swinging his hind quarters round to the left. Here, the fact of a
man having a leg on each side of his horse and fairly long stirrups,
makes him far more capable of reining back a horse properly, than a lady
seated on one side of the animal. A man obtains command of a horse's
hind quarters by the pressure of his legs, especially when the feet are
drawn back. As horses very much dislike reining back, I would caution
the rider not to disgust her animal by continuing it for too long a
time. He should be occasionally reined back a couple of times for four
or five paces, and after each rein back should be allowed to go forward,
and he should be rewarded for his obedience by a few pats on the neck
and some words of encouragement. If the animal's temper be upset by too
much reining back, he will probably adopt the dangerous habit of running
back, when he would be very liable to fall, or he may rear. As
inconsiderate people will persist in taking kickers into the hunting
field, every lady who desires to hunt should be able to rein back her
horse, in order to remove him, if possible, from the dangerous vicinity
of an animal whose tail is adorned with a red bow, which is a sign that
he is a kicker, and not that he has been recently vaccinated.

Her next lessons should be devoted to obtaining practice in jumping
various kinds of fences, and in riding up and down hill, over ridge and
furrow and difficult ground, which we will deal with in another chapter.
A lady should remember to always keep an eye on her mount, and never let
her attention be diverted from the order of his going, however much she
may be o