seven years old, and ought to learn to ride. I hope to hear
soon that you have made progress in that important part of your
education. Your uncle William (a boy-hero in the Peninsula) rode well
before he was seven years old." The proper commencement for a boy is a
pony in which he can interest himself, and on which he may learn to sit
as a horseman should.

I particularly warn parents against those broad-backed animals which,
however suitable for carrying heavy old gentlemen, or sacks to market,
are certainly very uncomfortable for the short legs of little boys, and
likely to induce rupture. On a narrow, well-bred pony, of 11 or 12 hands
high, a boy of six can sit like a little man. It is cruel to make
children ride with bare legs.

Before Rarey introduced his system, there was no satisfactory mode of
training those ponies that were too small for a man to mount, unless the
owner happened to live near some racing stable, where he could obtain
the services of a "feather-weight doll," and then the pony often learned
tricks more comic than satisfactory.

By patiently applying the practices explained in the preceding chapters,
the smallest and most highly-bred pony may be reduced to perfect
docility without impairing its spirit, and taught a number of amusing
tricks.

Young ladies may learn on full-sized horses quite as well as on ponies,
if they are provided with suitable side-saddles.

A man, or rather a boy, may learn to ride by practice and imitation, and
go on tumbling about until he has acquired a firm and even elegant seat,
but no lady can ever learn to ride as a lady should ride, without a good
deal of instruction; because her seat on horseback is so thoroughly
artificial, that without some competent person to tell her of her
faults, she is sure to fall into a number of awkward ungraceful tricks.
Besides, a riding-school, with its enclosed walls and trained horses,
affords an opportunity of going through the preliminary lessons without
any of those accidents which on the road, or in a field, are very likely
to occur with a raw pupil on a fresh horse. For a young lad to fall on
the grass, is not a serious affair, but a lady should never be allowed
to run the chance of a fall, because it is likely to destroy the nerve,
without which no lessons can be taught successfully. All who have
noticed the performances of Amazones in London, or at Brighton, must
have in remembrance the many examples of ladies who, with great