the closer you clasp the saddle without getting your legs _around_ the
horse, the better. In the leap, or with a plunging horse, you may use
the upper part of the calf, or as much more as your spurs will allow
you to use. But of all equestrian horrors the worst is the too common
habit of constantly using the calves instead of the knees to clasp the
saddle-flaps. To such an extent is this often carried by a tyro (and
no man gets beyond this stage who does it), that you can see an angle
of daylight between the points where his thigh and calf touch the
saddle, showing that his knee, which ought to be his main and constant
hold, does not touch the saddle at all. The stirrup-leathers,
especially if heavy, as they should be, often hurt the knee, if you
are new to the saddle, and perhaps are the main inducement to this
execrable habit. But you must either get your knees hardened, or else
give up the saddle. Keep a steady lookout for this. You will never
ride if you don't use your knees. If you do use them properly, your
feet will look after themselves. Ride with the flat of the thigh and
the knee-bone at all times close to the saddle.
Sit erect, but avoid rigidity. It is good practice to sit close, that
is, without rising, on a slow jog-trot. Let us try. Sit perfectly
straight and take the bumping. On a jog-trot, it is an unpardonable
sin to lean forward at all. You will find that shortly it does not
bump you so much, and by and by it will not at all. But don't lean
back either. That is the country bumpkin's prerogative. Nelly is
evidently easy enough, only she has not been taught to curb her
ambition. Nothing shakes a man into the saddle better than this same
jog-trot. Nothing is more absurd than the attempt to rise when the
horse is only jogging, or, as it were, the attempt to make your horse
begin to trot by beginning to rise. It looks like an attempt to lift
yourself up by your boot straps. Teach him some other indication to
start a trot. It is useless to rise unless a horse is going at least a
six-mile gait.
Some School-riders taboo the jog, but all the cavalry of the world use
it; it is the homeward gait of the tired hunter, and it does teach a
man a good, easy, safe seat. It is true that a horse who won't walk at
speed, but who falls from a slow walk into a jog whenever you urge
him, is a nuisance. Moreover, the uneducated jog is neither a
fashionable nor a desirable gait. But a schooled jog, which the horse
does under your direction and control, is quite another thing, and a
jog greatly relieves a tired horse. It seems to be unjustly tabooed.
Unless, then, you are ultra-fashionable, make a habit of jogging now
and then. By this I mean jogging with your horse "collected," so that
you have not an ounce of hold on his mouth, and he is still under your
absolute control, your seat meanwhile being firm and unshaken. But
never let the horse jog of his own motion. That may spoil his walk.
Make him jog only when you want him to do so, and when walking, do not
let him fall into a jog unbidden. The jog I mean should be almost a
parade gait; too slow to rise to, but still perfect in action, and so
poised that from it your horse can bound into any faster gait at word.
Your hands are too high. They want to be but a couple of inches above
the pommel, better lower than higher. A man whose reins wear out the
pigskin on his pommel is all right. A horse who carries his head high
needs lower hands. Some low-headed horses require the hands to be held
a bit higher to stimulate the forehand.
It is difficult to say thus much without saying a great deal more; for
this is but a hint of what is essential to correct such a physical
defect as a low-carried head. But what I tell you will whet your
appetite for a thorough knowledge, and this you will find in the books
of Baucher's followers. The use of snaffle and curb, each for its best
purpose, is very delicate.
Let me again repeat, of all things never hang on your horse's mouth.
You may have to do so on Penelope's, or rather Penelope may hang on
your hands, till you get her suppled, but you must try to do that
soon. You don't want to be a "three legged rider." If you cannot learn
to ride at any gait and speed smoothly and well, with your reins so
loose that you might as well not have them in your hands, you will
never do anything but "ride the bridle."
This applies to your seat, not to Penelope. It is not wise habitually
to ride with reins too loose; you should always feel your horse's
mouth. But you can feel it without a tight rein. Good driving horses
often pull. A good riding horse should never do so.
Nelly seems to be sure-footed. If she is apt to stumble, sell her.
Your neck is worth more than your pocket. By School-training and its
consequent habit of keeping the hind legs well under him, a stumbler
will learn instinctively to bring up the succeeding hind foot to the
support of the yielding fore foot, so as to save himself a fall; but
you don't want an imperfect horse, Tom. If Nelly can trot without
stumbling, it is excellent practice for you to tie the reins in a knot
on her neck, and to ride along the road without touching them. When
you feel as secure this way as any other, your seat is strong. You do
not want to do this _en evidence_. But get off on the country roads
and practice it. This is one advantage of a careful riding-master and
a good school; a pupil is taught the seat apart from and before the
uses of the reins.
XXXIII.
As I think you have already mastered all that I have told you, you may
begin to teach Penelope a bit. But remember that, as you are both
intelligent, she will be teaching you at the same time. I notice that
you have to use two hands to guide your mare, and I presume you want
to learn some better way, for however necessary two hands may
occasionally be, a horse must at times be managed by one. There are
three methods of guiding a horse under saddle. The simplest, and the
one requiring the least education, is the same which you are using,
and which is the common way of driving, by holding the rein or reins
of each side in one hand, and by pulling rein on the side you wish
Nelly to turn to. It is possible to guide this way with one hand by a
suitable turn of the wrist, but unless the horse is well collected, as
few of our horses nowadays are, it is a poor reliance in any unusual
case. The next method is guiding by the neck, by which the horse is
made to turn to the right if you draw the rein across or lay it upon
the left side of his neck, and _vice versa_. The third method combines
the two others, and the horse obeys either indication. It requires the
highest art in man and beast, and is superb in results when learned.
The animal may be guided by the bit with the reins held in one hand,
applying the pressure by the turn of the wrist, or may be turned by
the neck while the bit is used to lighten one or other side. But this
requires a hand and mouth of equal delicacy, and a horse always in a
state of equilibrium.
You will need only the first two to begin with, and Nelly already
knows the first.
Most horses now and then require you to use both hands, and
School-riding calls for their use in the more difficult feats. But an
agreeable saddle beast should guide by the neck readily at all times.
Stonehenge calls this a "highly desirable accomplishment," but it is
really only the beginning of the alphabet of the horse's education;
and indeed in the School airs, though both hands be used, the forehand
is constantly thrown to one or the other side by the neck pressure,
the direct tension of the rein being used to give the horse quite a
different indication at the same moment.
Moreover, you will not always be able to devote two hands to Nelly.
You may need one of them for something else. It would be embarrassing
not to be able to use your whip or crop, or to button your glove, or
to take off your hat, and at the same time to turn a corner or avoid a
team. I have often ridden with people who so entirely relied upon both
hands, that they had to draw rein for so simple a thing as the use of
their handkerchief, lest their horse should fly the track while their
right hand was so engaged. And while I am to a certain extent an
advocate for the use of two hands, I cannot agree with the habit of
the day of so constantly employing two that the horse and rider both
lose the power of doing satisfactory work with one.
By all means teach Nelly to guide by the neck. When you have done
this, you may resort to both hands again whenever you desire. And
the habit of using both hands is certainly more apt to keep your
shoulders, and hence your seat straight. But a horse who cannot be
guided with one hand under all but the most exceptional conditions is
not fit for saddle work on the road. In the more intricate paces of
the School, indeed, the soldier uses but one hand; and though often
more delicate hints can be imparted to a horse's mind by two, yet all
except the greatest performances of the _manege_ can be accomplished
with one, and a horse who is unable to rehearse perfectly all the road
gaits and movements with the indications of one hand and two heels is
sadly lacking in the knowledge he should boast.
You very naturally ask how this is to be taught. It is by no means
difficult. Have you never noticed a groom riding a horse in a halter?
Any steady horse can be so ridden. The halter rope is usually on the
left side of the neck because the man has it in his hand when he jumps
on, and he guides the horse by a pull on the halter rope if he wants
him to turn to the left, and by laying the rope upon and pulling it
across the neck pretty well up if he wants him to turn to the right.
Now you will notice that if you hold the reins far up on Nelly's neck,
half way from withers to ears, and pull them across the left (near)
side of her neck, she will, after a little uncertainty, be apt to turn
to the right, although the pull is on the left side of the bit. Try it
and see. There,--she has done it, after some hesitation. And she did
it because she felt that her head was being forced to the right and
she very naturally followed it. The reverse will occur if you will
pull the reins across the right (off) side of the neck. Some horses
seize this idea very quickly, and it is only a matter of practice to
keep them doing the same thing as you gradually bring the reins
farther and farther down the neck till they lie where they should be,
near the withers. If Nelly will thus catch the idea, a week or ten
days will teach her a good deal, and in a month she will guide fairly
well by the neck;--after which, practice makes perfect. If she had
not seemed to catch the idea, and had turned the other way, it would
have been because the pull on the bit impressed her mind rather than
the pressure on the neck acting in the opposite way. Under such
circumstances you should, when you press the rein on the near side of
her neck, take hold of the off rein also and force her to turn to the
right, trying to make the neck pressure a little more marked than that
on the bit. A horse quickly learns to appreciate the difference
between the direct pull of the rein on the bit and the indirect one
made across the neck. None of the neat movements of the _manege_ can
be executed unless a horse has learned absolutely to distinguish
between an indication to turn, and one which is meant to lighten one
side in order to prepare for a School movement, or to enable him to
lead or exhibit pronounced action with that side.
[Illustration: PLATE X.
TAKING-OFF AT WATER.]
At first you had perhaps better teach Penelope to guide only one way
by the neck, using the rein alone for the other turn. But you can
determine this by her intelligence. If there is any place where you
can ride in an irregular circle or quadrangle, you can, after Nelly
gets used to turning in a certain direction at the corners, press the
reins on the opposite side of her neck as she is about to turn, so
that she may get to associate this pressure with the movement in
the direction away from it. This is the way horses learn in a
riding-school. Or if she is going towards home and knows the corners
she has to turn, do not let her make them of her own accord, but hold
her away from them until you give her the neck pressure. Or you can
zig-zag along the road if you are in a quiet place where people will
not think that you are _toque_, or that your mare has the staggers. It
will thus not be long before Nelly gets the idea, and the mere idea,
once caught, is quickly worked into a habit. Sometimes I have got a
horse to guide passably well by the neck in a day. Oftener, it takes a
week or two, while delicacy comes by very slow degrees.
XXXIV.
When you have got Nelly to the point where she guides fairly well by
the neck, what next?
It is evident that the muscles of your mare's neck are rather rigid,
for she carries it straight, though her crest is well curved. From
this rigidity springs that resistance to the bit which she so
constantly shows. A neck which arches easily means, as a rule,
obedience to it. It is extremely rare that a horse will arch his neck,
except when very fresh, so as to bring his mouth to the yielding
position and keep it there, of his own volition; and then he is apt to
pull on your hands. You must not suppose that an arched neck means
that the horseman is worrying his beast to make him appear proud or
prance for the purpose of showing off. It is precisely this which a
good horseman never does. He always uses his bits gently. It is
cruelty, as well as ruin to the horse's mouth, to hold him by the curb
until his neck tires, and he leans upon it, held suspended by the
equal torture of the chain and the aching muscles. A horse never
should pull on a curb. If your hands are light, the curb rein may be
loose and still the horse's head be in its proper position, that is,
about perpendicular. The well-trained horse, without the slightest
effort, arches his neck to the curb or snaffle alike, and keeps it so.
It is only when his rider releases it, or chooses to let him "have his
head" that he takes it. Often, in fact, a horse will not do so when
you give him the chance. Patroclus here will get tired out, certainly
completely tire me out, long before his bit becomes irksome. When
trotting, or when galloping across the fields or in deep snow, I am
often apt to let him carry his head as he chooses on account of the
change or the extra exertion. But with his well-suppled neck I always
feel certain that the slightest intimation of the bit will bring his
head in place instead of meeting resistance. And he generally seems to
prefer to bring his head well into the bit, so, as it were, to
establish agreeable relations with you. I often notice that he feels
unsteady if I give him his head too much. And when tired, he seems to
like the encouragement given by light and lively hands all the more.
The first thing, then, to do is to get Penelope's neck suppled. This
means that the naturally rigid muscles of the neck shall be by proper
exercises made so supple as to allow the mare to bring her head to the
position where there can be a constant "give and take" between your
hands and her mouth. The usual outward sign of such suppleness is an
arched neck, though as occasionally an habitual puller will arch his
neck naturally, this is not an infallible sign. And some horses,
especially thoroughbreds, however good their wind, will roar if you
too quickly bring their heads in. This is because the wind-pipe of
such horses is compressed too much by arching the neck. Thoroughbreds
on the turf are wont to stick their noses out while running, because
this affords them the best breathing power at very high speed. This
habit becomes hereditary, and among them there are not a few who
cannot readily be brought in by the bit. Sometimes, except as a feat,
you can never supple such necks. Oftener, it only needs more time and
patience,--in other words a slower process. A limber-necked
thoroughbred has, however, the most delightful of mouths, except for
the fact that he seems occasionally to draw or yield almost a yard of
rein, owing to the length of his neck, and your hands have to be
watched accordingly. If he has such a neck, the only safety, if he is
high-strung, is never to let him beyond the hand.
The result of the suppling of the neck is a soft mouth under all
conditions. How shall you begin to supple Nelly's neck, you ask,
without the long process of the Schools?
You cannot perfectly, but you may partially do this under saddle.
Whenever you are on a walk you may, as a habit, let your horse have
his head, and encourage him to keep at his best gait. A dull walker is
a nuisance. A little motion of the hands or heels and an occasional
word will keep him lively and at work, and get him into the habit of
walking well, if he has enough ambition. The School-rider keeps his
horse "collected" on the walk at all times, and though the steps are
thus shortened, they become quicker and more springy, and the speed is
not diminished. I do either way, as the mood takes me, for though I
incline to the method of the School-riders, I do not think that it
hurts a horse to have entire freedom now and then.
Some amblers are slow walkers, but the five-mile amble takes the place
of the rapid walk, and is often more agreeable. Few horses walk more
than three and a half miles an hour. A four-mile walk is a good one.
Exceptionally, you may reach the ideal five miles. I once knew a horse
in Ohio who walked (and not a running walk either, but a square "heel
and toe" walk) six miles in an hour, on wagers. But our confab, Tom,
often gets too diffuse. Let us go on with our lesson.
XXXV.
Here we are quietly walking along the road. Suppose you draw up the
reins a bit, the curb somewhat the more. Nelly will at once bring up
her head, and very naturally stick out her nose in the endeavor to
avoid the pressure of the curb chain. At the same time, as you see,
she will shorten her steps. Don't jerk or worry her, but still exert a
gentle pressure on the curb, and keep up a slight vibrating movement
of the hands, speaking to her kindly. In a moment or two, she will
arch her neck, and the bit will hang loosely in her mouth. There, you
see, her nose comes down, and a handsome head and neck she has! Now
pat her, and speak caressingly to her, and after a few seconds release
her head. When these exercises are done on the stable floor, the use
of the snaffle will accomplish the same result, and this is very
desirable. But if you begin these flexions on the road you must use
the curb, because Nelly now understands the snaffle to be for another
purpose. The use of the curb is apt to lower a horse's head, and with
some horses too much. The snaffle may be employed to correct this low
carriage, but this use of it involves more than I can explain to you
now. If Nelly's head gets too low, raise your hands a bit.
Try it over again, and each time prolong the period of holding her
head in poise. But never hold it so long that her neck will ache and
she begin to lean upon the bit. If she should do so before you release
her head, play gently with the rein for an instant to get her back to
the soft mouthing of the bit, caress her, and then release her head.
This is on the principle that you should always have your way with a
horse, and not he his. And kindness alone accomplishes this much more
speedily and certainly than severity. If the occasion ever comes when
you cannot have your way with Nelly, give a new turn to the matter by
attracting her attention to something else, so as not to leave on her
mind the impression that she has resisted you.
Notice two things, Tom, while Nelly is thus champing her bit. She has
an almost imperceptible hold of your hands and her gait is shorter and
more elastic. This has the effect of a semi-poised position, from
which she can more readily move into any desired gait than from the
extended looseness of the simple walk. This is one step towards what
horsemen call being "in hand," or "collected;" and grooms, "pulled
together," though indeed the "pulling together" of the groom but very
distantly approaches the fine poise of the Schools.
Of all means of destroying a good mouth, to allow the horse to lean
upon the curb is the surest. Avoid this by all means. But so long as
Nell will bring in her head and play with the bit, keep her doing so
at intervals. After a week or two she will be ready to walk quite a
stretch with her head in position, and you will both of you have
gained something in the way of schooling her mouth and your hands. You
can then try her on a trot, and if you can keep your seat without
holding on by the reins, she will learn to do the same thing at this
gait too, and later at the canter and the gallop. But unless your own
seat is firm and your hands are light, you will only be doing her
future education an injury. Every twitch on her sensitive mouth,
occasioned by an insecure seat or jerky hands, will be so much lost.
Moreover, your curb chain must neither be too long nor too short. If
too long, Nelly will not bring down her head at all. If too short, it
will worry her unnecessarily. You can judge of it by her willingness
gradually to accustom herself to it without jerking her head or
resisting it, and without lolling her tongue.
This suppling of Nelly's neck which you will give her on her daily
ride is only of the muscles governing the direct up and down motion of
the head and neck. You are not overcoming the lateral rigidities. This
requires stable exercises. If you have leisure for these (and you very
likely will make some when you find the strides in comfort and
elegance Nelly is making), you will buy one of the manuals I have told
you about. What you have taught her, however, is excellent so far as
it goes, and is time well employed. It will serve its purpose upon the
road, if it does not suffice for the more perfect education.
XXXVI.
The next step will be for you to try to supple the croup or
hind-quarters of your mare. The two things can go on together, though
it is well to get the forehand fairly suppled before beginning on the
croup. The flexions of the croup are fully as important, if not more
so, than those of the forehand, and in their proper teaching lies the
root of your success. If you wear spurs, you should be absolutely sure
you will never touch Nelly with them by accident. Spurs need not to be
severe in any event. It is uselessly cruel to bring the blood, except
in a race, where every ounce of exertion must be called for. Spurs in
training or riding should never be used for punishment. They will be
too essential in conveying your meaning to Penelope for you to throw
away their value in bad temper. The horse should learn that the spur
is an encouragement and an indication of your wishes, and should be
taught to receive its attack without wincing or anger.
The old habit of the _manege_ was to force all the weight of the
horse, by the power of a severe curb bit, back upon his haunches, and
oblige him to execute all the airs in a position all but poised upon
his hind legs. The modern dispensation endeavors to effect better
results by teaching the animal to be constantly balanced upon all
four legs, and, by having his forces properly distributed, to be in
a condition to move any of them at the will of his rider in any
direction, without disturbing this balance. Moreover, the element of
severity has been eliminated from training altogether.
Suppose, then, that you are walking Nelly and are holding her head in
poise. Now bring your legs gently together, so as to slightly touch
her sides. You will see that she at once moves quickly towards the
bit. Here she must find herself held in check by it. The result of the
two conditions will be that she will get her hind legs somewhat more
under her than usual. It is just this act, properly done, which
produces the equilibrium desired. When a horse is what is termed
"collected," or "in hand," he has merely brought his hind feet well
under him, and has yielded his mouth to your hands in such a way that
he can quickly respond to your demands. This he cannot do when he is
in an open or sprawling position.
It were better to teach Nelly this gathering of the hind legs under
her by certain preliminary exercises on foot; but you can by patient
trial while mounted accomplish a great part of the same result. And
between bit to restrain her ardor and spur to keep her well up to it,
the mare will get accustomed to a position of equilibrium from which
she can, when taught, instantly take any gait, advance any foot, or
perform any duty required. She will be really in the condition of a
fine scale which a hair's weight will instantly affect.