der who sits in a side-saddle,
which must be a most unnatural burden to a horse that has been broken
and ridden by men. Apart from considerations of side-saddle gear, the
extra steadiness which is required of him in standing "stock" still
while a lady is being put up on his back and her habit arranged,
necessitates more patience on his part than with a male rider. On the
other hand, he may be impressed with the idea that he is being asked to
carry a more precious burden, and that he must prove himself worthy of
the confidence reposed in him. I think this feeling of honour exists in
horses, for I am reminded of a charger which an officer in India lent
me, with somewhat anxious misgivings, to ride. He told me that the
animal would be sure to buck at a certain spot, and, as he rode with me,
he warned me when I came to this debateable ground to be ready for the
usual performance. We cantered along quietly, as we had been doing, for
I thought it best to pretend nothing, and my mount, to his owner's great
surprise, made no attempt to buck, either then or subsequently, while I
was riding him, and we remained the best of friends. A hunter mare which
I had in Cheshire, gave another instance of this honourable feeling
among equines. When ridden by my husband or myself, she loved to show
off by shying at a white gate, a heap of stones, a piece of paper, a
bird, or any imaginable thing that she could find as an excuse to dart
suddenly from one side of the road to the other. When we got to the
hunting field, with all its noise and turmoil, she was as steady as
possible, and the violent shying, which was her way of showing off,
seemed to be quite forgotten. She would carry my son to his school, a
distance of about five miles, and bring him home without making any
attempt to shy with the child, but if an adult person rode her on the
same route, she would play up as usual. I can only infer from this
experience that, as I have already said, many horses possess a certain
sense of honour. As shying is the most common vice among horses, we may
consider it first.

SHYING.

I have called this habit or trick of becoming violently startled without
adequate cause a vice, because in old horses who frequently shy with the
object of unseating a rider thus suddenly taken unawares, it certainly
is a very bad vice, and one for which the only cure is good
horsemanship--that is to say, a seat sufficiently secure in the saddle
to enable us to treat