ing astride in a kind of divided skirt,
and as she was rather portly, her palfrey appeared to be fully
caparisoned. If the cross-saddle were to be generally adopted by women,
it would be but a revival of an ancient custom which was in use before
the side-saddle with a leaping head rendered it possible for women to
ride across country. According to Audry, English ladies discarded
cross-saddle riding, and began to ride with the right leg over the
crutch, about the middle of the seventeenth century, which style the
Countess of Newcastle is said to have been the first to adopt. In the
_Encyclopaedia Londinensis_ we read that Queen Elizabeth "seems to have
been the first who set the ladies the more modest fashion of riding
sideways," but I think the honour of its introduction is due to Ann of
Bohemia, the consort of Richard the Second. Garsault tells us that
during the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, ladies of the
French Court usually rode astride on donkeys. Whatever may be said in
favour of cross-saddle riding, we must bear in mind that it was not
until the introduction in 1830 of the leaping head that women were able
to ride over fences, and it would be a most reactionary measure to try
to dispense with this valuable improvement on the ancient and
incompetent order of things.

CHAPTER XXI.

RIDING DIFFICULT HORSES.

General Remarks--Shying--Stumbling--Dancing and Prancing--Throwing up
the Head--Habit-shy--Jibbing--Shouldering--Backing--Pulling--
Refusing--Boring--Kicking--Buck-jumping--Rearing.

GENERAL REMARKS.

As ladies are not supposed to have to ride "difficult" horses, a chapter
on the best means of managing such animals may appear superfluous; but
even the steadiest animal is apt to go wrong at times, and as forewarned
is forearmed, it is best for us to know how to act in cases of
emergency. I do not think that there exists in this world an absolutely
perfect horse, or faultless human being for that matter, although many
members of both the human and equine race nearly approach the ideal
standard, especially among our own gentle sex. A woman who rides a great
variety of horses finds that each of her mounts has his or her special
peculiarity of temper, which often sorely taxes her supply of patience
and tact in keeping it under control. All horses, even the quietest, try
to show their authority when ridden by a stranger, and still more so
when they find themselves carrying a ri