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HOW WOMEN SHOULD RIDE
by
"C. DE HURST"
Illustrated
[Illustration]
New York
Harper & Brothers, Franklin Square
1892
Copyright, 1892, by HARPER & BROTHERS.
All rights reserved.
TO
E. E. F.
TO WHOM I OWE THE EXPERIENCE
WHICH HAS ENABLED ME TO WRITE OF RIDING
THIS BOOK
IS GRATEFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY
DEDICATED
INTRODUCTION
It has not been the intention of the author of this little volume to
present the reader with elaborate chapters of technical essays.
Entire libraries have been written on the care and management of the
horse from the date of its foaling; book upon book has been compiled
on the best and proper method of acquiring some degree of skill in the
saddle. The author has scarcely hoped, therefore, to exhaust in 248
pages a subject which, after having been handled on the presses of
nearly every publisher in this country and England, yet contains
unsettled points for the discussion of argumentative horse-men and
horse-women.
But it happens with riding--as, indeed, it does with almost every
other subject--that we ignore the simpler side for the more intricate.
We delve into a masterpiece, suitable for a professional, on the
training of a horse, when the chances are we do not know how to saddle
him. We stumble through heavy articles on bitting, the technical terms
of which we do not understand, when if our own horse picked up a stone
we probably would be utterly at a loss what to do.
We, both men and women, are too much inclined to gallop over the
fundamental lessons, which should be conned over again and again until
thoroughly mastered. We are restive in our novitiate period, impatient
to pose as past-masters in an art before we have acquired its first
principles.
Beginning with a bit of advice to parents, of which they stand sorely
in need, it is the purpose of this book to carry the girl along the
bridle-path, from the time she puts on a habit for the first attempt,
to that when she joins the Hunt for a run across country after the
hounds.
There is no intention of wearying and confusing her by a formidable
array of purely technical instruction.
The crying fault with nearly all those who have handled this subject
at length has been that of distracting the uninformed reader by the
most elaborate dissertation on all points down to the smallest
details.
This author, on the contrary, has shorn the instruction of all hazy
intricacies, with which the equestrienne has so often been asked to
burden herself, and brought out instead only those points essential
to safety, skill, and grace in the saddle.
No space has been wasted on unnecessary technicalities which the woman
is not likely to either understand or care to digest, but everything
has been written with a view of aiding her in obtaining a sound,
practical knowledge of the horse, under the saddle and in harness.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
A WORD TO PARENTS Page 3
Dangers of Early Riding, 4.--Vanity, 9.