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THE BARB AND THE BRIDLE;
A HANDBOOK OF EQUITATION FOR LADIES, AND MANUAL OF INSTRUCTION IN THE
SCIENCE OF RIDING, FROM THE PREPARATORY SUPPLING EXERCISES ON FOOT, TO
THE FORM IN WHICH A LADY SHOULD RIDE TO HOUNDS.
_Reprinted from_ "The Queen" _Newspaper._
By "VIEILLE MOUSTACHE."
LONDON:
THE "QUEEN" OFFICE, 346, STRAND.
1874.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY HORACE COX, 346, STRAND, W.C.
[Illustration: THE LADY'S HORSE.]
INTRODUCTION.
Having received numerous applications from ladies desirous of
information, as to the true principles and practice of equitation, I
venture to put before the public, in book form, a series of articles
which appeared originally in the columns of the _Queen_ newspaper on
ladies' riding.
Commencing with the calisthenic practices so necessary to a young lady
before beginning her mounted lessons, these papers enter into every
detail (less those of the _Haut Ecole de Manege_) connected with the
science of riding as it should be acquired by all who wish to become
efficient horsewomen. As the rules laid down are precisely those upon
which I have successfully instructed a great number of ladies, as my
experience is of many years' standing, and acquired in the best schools
in Europe, I trust the following pages may prove useful; for, while it
is quite true that neither man nor woman can learn to ride by simply
reading a book on the subject, still a carefully-compiled manual of
equitation is always a ready means of refreshing the memory upon points
of importance in the art, which, however clearly explained by the oral
instruction of a first-class master, may yet in time escape the
recollection of the pupil.
"VIEILLE MOUSTACHE."
THE BARB AND THE BRIDLE.
CHAPTER I.
Riding, considered as a means of recreation, as a promoter of health, or
as the best mode in which to display to the greatest advantage beauty
and symmetry of face and form, is perhaps unequalled among the many
accomplishments necessary to a lady.
Out of doors croquet may be interesting as a game, and fascinating
enough when a lady has an agreeable partner, but as an exercise
physically its healthfulness is doubtful.
There is too much standing about, often on damp grass, too little real
exertion to keep the circulation up properly, and too many intervals of
quiescence, wherein a lady stands perfectly still (in a very graceful
attitude no doubt) long enough in the chill evening air to create
catarrh or influenza.
Archery, although a far more graceful exercise than croquet, is open to
the same objection as regards danger of taking cold.
Skating, though both healthful and elegant, is so seldom available as
scarcely to be reckoned among the exercises beneficial to ladies.
Moreover, it is attended with considerable danger in many cases.
_To be well_ is to look well. Healthy physical exertion is indispensable
to the former state, and in no way can it be so well secured as by
riding. Mounted on a well-broken, well-bred horse, and cantering over a
breezy down, or trotting on the soft sward, on the way to covert, a lady
feels a glow of health and flow of spirits unattainable by any other
kind of out or in door recreation.
That the foregoing truths are fully appreciated by the ladies of the
Upper Ten Thousand is abundantly proved by the goodly gathering of fair
and aristocratic equestrians to be seen in Rotten Row during the London
season, and at every fashionable meet of hounds in the kingdom in the
winter time.
Nor is riding confined to those only whose names figure in the pages of
"Burke" or "Debrett." Within the last twenty years the wives and
daughters of professional men and wealthy tradesmen, who were content
formerly to take an airing in a carriage, have taken to riding on
horseback. And they are quite right. It is not (with management) a bit
more expensive, while it is beyond comparison the most agreeable and
salubrious mode of inhaling the breeze.
The daughter of the peer, or other great grandee of the country, may be
almost said to be a horsewoman to the manner born. Riding comes as
naturally to her as it does to her brothers. Both clamber up on their
ponies, or are lifted on, almost as soon as they can walk, and
consequently "grow" into their riding, and become at fifteen or sixteen
years of age as much at home in the saddle as they are on a sofa. In the
hunting field they see the best types of riding extant, male and female,
and learn to copy their style and mode of handling their horses, while
oral instruction of the highest order is always at hand to supplement
daily practice. To the great ladies of England, then, all hints on the
subject would be superfluous. Most of them justly take great pride in
their riding, spare no pains to excel in it, and are thoroughly
successful.
In fact, it is the one accomplishment in which they as far surpass the
women of all other countries in the world as they outvie them in
personal beauty.
A German or French woman possibly may hold her own with an Englishwoman
in a ball room or a box at the opera; but put her on horseback, and take
her to the covert side, she is "not in it" with her English rivals.
Although the advantages and opportunities I speak of, however, render
words of advice upon female equitation unnecessary to ladies of the
_sangre azul_, I trust they may be found useful to others who may not
have had such opportunities.
In the upper middle classes nothing is more probable than the marriage
of one of the daughters of the house with a man whose future lot may be
cast in the colonies, where if a woman cannot ride she will be sorely at
a loss. Unlike the ladies of high degree above alluded to, the daughter
of a man in good position in the middle class will often not have
opportunities of learning to ride until she is fifteen or sixteen, and
by this time the youthful frame, supple as it may appear, has acquired
(so to speak) "a set," which at first renders riding far from agreeable;
because it calls into action whole sets of muscles and ligaments
heretofore rarely brought into play, or rather only partially so. Hence
the unpleasant stiffness that always follows the first essays of the
tyro in riding of the age I speak of, and which painful feeling too
often so discourages beginners that they give up the thing in disgust.
Now this unpleasant consequence of the first lessons may be easily
obviated by the following means. Bearing in mind that pain or stiffness
is the result of want of _supplesse_, the first desideratum is to
acquire this most desirable elasticity. To accomplish this, three months
before the pupil is put on horseback she should begin a course of
training in suppling and extension motions on foot, precisely similar to
those drilled into a cavalry recruit in the army. No amount of dancing
will do what is required. Even the professional _danseuse_, with her
constant exercise of the _ronde de jambe_, never possesses that mobile
action of the waist and play of the joints of the upper part of the
figure so thoroughly to be acquired by the exercises I speak of, which
also have the further greater advantage of giving development and
expansion to the chest. I therefore respectfully advise every careful
mother, who is desirous of seeing her daughters become accomplished
horsewomen, before taking them to the riding master (of whom more
hereafter), in the first place to employ a good drill master.
Possibly, the young ladies may have had drill instruction at school;
but experience tells me that such instruction is too often slurred over,
or only practised at such long intervals that its effect is confined to
causing the pupil to walk upright and carry herself well--a very
desirable matter, but not all that is requisite as a preparation for
riding.
Drill, to be effective for the above purposes, _should be practised
daily_. The course of instruction should begin with very short lessons,
lasting not more than twenty minutes at first; but these, _given in the
presence of mamma_, should be _most rigidly and minutely carried out,
otherwise they are useless_. They should gradually be increased in
length, according to the strength of the pupil, until she can stand an
hour's drilling without fatigue. The course should include instruction
in the use of dumb-bells, very carefully given. The weight of these
should in no case exceed seven pounds for a young lady of fifteen or
sixteen, and may judiciously be confined to three and four pounds for
those of a more tender age. The great use of dumb-bells is to give
flexibility to the shoulder joints and expansion to the chest. The first
lessons should not last more than five minutes, and in no case be
continued an instant after the pupil exhibits the slightest symptom
(easily discernable) of fatigue.
Of the course of drill instruction, the lessons called the "extension
motions" are the most effectual in promoting flexibility of the whole
figure; but they must be gone into by very gradual and careful
induction, and their effect will then be not only beneficial, but
pleasant to the pupil.
As it is possible that this may meet the eye of some lady who resides
where no eligible drill master is available, I propose in my next
chapter to give a programme of the exercises I speak of, which may then
be practised under the superintendence of the lady herself or her
governess. But in all cases where the services of a competent and
thoroughly practised drill master are to be had it is always best to
employ them.
Simple as the instruction may appear, the art of imparting it has to be
acquired in a school where the most minute attention is paid to every
detail, where nothing is allowed to be done in a careless or slovenly
manner, and where (so to speak) the pupil is never asked to read before
he can spell. It is this jumping _in medias_ with beginners in riding
that so often causes mischief and disgusts the pupil, who begins by
thinking that it is the easiest thing in the world to ride well, but
when she is put on horseback finds to her dismay that it is anything but
easy until acquired by practice and thoroughly good instructions.