e.--Ride
with one pair of reins and two hands.--Advantage of hunting-horn on
side-saddle.--On the best plan for mounting.--Rarey's plan.--On a
man's seat.--Nolan's opinion.--Military style.--Hunting style.--Two
examples in Lord Cardigan.--The Prussian style.--Anecdote by Mr.
Gould, Blucher, and the Prince Regent.--Hints for men learning to
ride.--How to use the reins.--Pull right for right, and left for
left.--How to collect your horse.

You cannot learn to ride from a book, but you may learn how to do some
things and how to avoid many things of importance. Those who know all
about horses and horsemanship, or fancy they do, will not read this
chapter. But as there are riding-schools in the City of London, where an
excellent business is done in teaching well-grown men how to ride for
health or fashion, and as papas who know their own bump-bump style very
well often desire to teach their daughters, I have collected the
following instructions from my own experience, now extending over full
thirty years, on horses of all kinds, including the worst, and from the
best books on the subject, some of the best being anonymous
contributions by distinguished horsemen, printed for private
circulation. Every man and woman, girl and boy, who has the opportunity,
should learn to ride on horseback. It is almost an additional sense--it
is one of the healthiest exercises--it affords amusement when other
amusements fail--relaxation from the most severe toil, and often, in
colonies or wild countries, the only means of travelling or trading.

A man feels twice a man on horseback. The student and the farmer meet,
when mounted, the Cabinet Minister and the landlord on even terms--good
horsemanship is a passport to acquaintances in all ranks of life, and to
make acquaintances is one of the arts of civilised life; to ripen them
into use or friendship is another art. On horseback you can call with
less ceremony, and meet or leave a superior with less form than on
foot. Rotten Row is the ride of idleness and pleasure, but there is a
great deal of business done in sober walks and slow canters, commercial,
political, and matrimonial.

For a young lady not to be able to ride with a lover is a great loss;
not to be able to ride with a young husband a serious privation.

The first element for enjoying horse exercise is good horsemanship.
Colonel Greenwood says very truly:--"_Good_ riding is worth acquiring by
th