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HINTS ON HORSEMANSHIP.
[Illustration]
HINTS ON HORSEMANSHIP,
TO
A Nephew and Niece.
BY
AN OFFICER OF THE HOUSEHOLD BRIGADE
OF CAVALRY.
[Illustration]
LONDON.
EDWARD MOXON & C^o. DOVER STREET.
1861.
HINTS ON HORSEMANSHIP,
TO
=A Nephew and Niece;=
OR,
COMMON SENSE AND COMMON ERRORS IN
COMMON RIDING.
BY
COLONEL GEORGE GREENWOOD,
LATE LIEUT.-COL. COMMANDING 2ND LIFE GUARDS.
NEW EDITION.
LONDON:
EDWARD MOXON & CO., DOVER STREET.
1861.
LONDON
BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
MILITARY RIDING NOT FIT FOR COMMON RIDING.
PAGE
Throughout Europe there is only one style of riding _taught_ 2
That is the soldier's _one-handed_ style 2
_Two hands_ should be used to the reins 5
A soldier's horse must turn on the wrong rein 7
Common riders generally turn their horses on the wrong rein 9
Result of this with colts or restive horses 10
Indications are not _aids_ 12
CHAPTER II.
HOLDING AND HANDLING THE REINS.
Reins at full length 14
The downward clutch 16
The Grecian mode of holding and handling the reins 18
The side clutch 20
The two reins _crossed_ in one hand 21
A rein in each hand 23
Turn to the right, and left 26
The hunting hand 26
The rough-rider's hand 27
Fixing the hands 28
Use of both bridles at once 30
Shortening the reins when held one in each hand, system of
taught, and of untaught horsemen 30
Use of the whip 34
Horses swerve and turn _only to the left_ 34
Fault in "the great untaught," two-handed, English rider 35
CHAPTER III.
EFFECT OF INDICATIONS.
Retaining, urging, and guiding indications 36
To make a horse collect himself 37
Canter, right turn, right pass 38
Left shoulder in 38
Bearing on the mouth 39
The horse must be made to collect himself in turning 42
And should not be turned on one rein only 43
Lady's canter 44
The quicker the pace, the greater degree of collection 44
French and English mistake in this 45
The shy horse 46
The restive horse 48
Truth may be paradoxical 49
CHAPTER IV.
MECHANICAL AID OF THE RIDER.
The rider cannot raise the falling horse 50
Harm is done by the attempt 51
The bearing-rein 54
Mechanical assistance of the jockey to his horse 56
Standing on the stirrups 58
Difference between the gallop and the leap 58
Steeple-chases and hurdle-races unfair on the horse 59
The rider should not attempt to lift his horse at a fence 61
CHAPTER V.
THE SEAT.
There is one direction which applies to all seats 65
Different seats for different styles of riding 65
The manège and the Eastern seats are the extremes 66
The long stirrup is necessary for cavalry to act in line 67
Medium length of stirrup for common riding 69
CHAPTER VI.
MOUNTING AND DISMOUNTING.
Directions to place a lady in her saddle 70
Directions to mount at a halt 71
To mount in movement 71
To dismount in movement 71
To vault on or over in movement 72
To vault on at a halt 72
Circus for practising these movements 72
To pick a whip from the ground 72
To face about in the saddle 73
CHAPTER VII.
THE BIT.
Place of the bit in the horse's mouth 74
Principle of the bit 74
Action of the common bit 76
Action of the Chifney bit 77
The loose eye 77
The nose-band 77
The horse's defence against the bit by the tongue 78
Effect of the porte against this defence 78
Defence of the horse by the lip 80
Defence by the teeth 80
Bar of the military and driving bit 81
Martingale 81
Danger does not result from power 84
CHAPTER VIII.
THE SADDLE AND SIDE-SADDLE.
A side-saddle should have no right hand pummel 86
The leaping-horn 86
Surcingle 88
Stirrup-leather 89
Stirrup-iron 90
Girthing 90
To avoid riding on the buckles of the girths 91
CHAPTER IX.
THE SHORT REIN.
The short rein should be used when one hand is occupied 93
Its use to a soldier 94
Its use with the restive horse 94
It should not be used in hunting, or in swimming a horse 95
Objection to it for common riding 95
Used by postilion 99
Short rein of the Eastern horseman 96
CHAPTER X.
COLT-BREAKING.
Colt-breaking is the best possible lesson for the rider 97
The head-stall 98
The snaffle 99
Longeing 101
Saddling 102
Mounting 102
Sermon to the colt-breaker 103
The noblest horse resists the most 103
The horse has a natural _right_ to resist 103
The colt wants no suppling 105
He wants to be taught the meaning of your indications 105
And to be brought to obey them 110
The leaping-bar 110
Fetch and carry 113
CHAPTER XI.
THE HORSE AND HIS STABLE.
Condition depends on food, work, and warmth 115
So does the difference between the _breeds_ of horses 116
The terseness of the Arab is the result of hard food 116
So is that of our thorough-bred horse 117
Different _breeds_ result from different natural conditions 118
Crossing only necessary where natural conditions are against you 119
We do not attend enough to warmth 120
We should get fine winter coats by warmth, instead of singeing 120
No fear of cold from fine coats 121
The horse's foot should be stopped with clay 121
The sore ridge 122
Stable breast-plate 124
The head-stall 125
Never physic, bleed, blister, or fire your horse 126
Food for condition 126
Rest for strains 126
Nature for wounds 126
Miles for shoeing 127
The horse should have water always by him 127
And should stand loose 128
No galloping on hard ground, either by master or man 128
He who cripples the horse kills him 128
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
FRONTISPIECE To face Title.
VIGNETTE Title.
FIG. PAGE
1.--STRICT REGIMENTAL 3
2.--VARIED REGIMENTAL 4
3.--REINS AT FULL LENGTH 15
4.--DOWN CLUTCH 17
5.--DOWN CLUTCH, REIN IN EACH HAND 18
6.--SIDE CLUTCH 19
7.--SIDE CLUTCH, REIN IN EACH HAND 20
8.--CROSS 22
9.--REIN IN EACH HAND 23
10.--TURN TO THE RIGHT 25
11.--TURN TO THE LEFT 26
12.--HUNTING GALLOP 27
13.--ROUGH-RIDER 28
14.--FIXING HANDS 29
HINTS ON HORSEMANSHIP.
CHAPTER I.
MILITARY RIDING NOT FIT FOR COMMON RIDING.
Throughout Europe there is only one style of riding _taught_; that is,
the soldier's _one-handed_ style.--_Two hands_ should be used to
the reins.--A soldier's horse must turn on the wrong rein.--Common
riders generally turn their horses on the wrong rein. Result of
this with colts or restive horses.--Indications are not _aids_.
When you wish to turn to the right pull the right rein stronger than the
left. This is common sense. The common error is precisely the reverse.
The common error is, when you wish to turn to the right to pass the hand
to the right. By this the right rein is slackened, and the left rein is
tightened, across the horse's neck, and the horse is required to turn to
the right when the left rein is pulled. It is to correct this common
error, this monstrous and perpetual source of bad riding and of bad
usage to good animals, that these pages are written.
[Sidenote: Only one style of riding _taught_.]
[Sidenote: That is, a _one-handed_ style.]
England is the only European country which admits of more than one style
of riding. But in all Europe, even in England, there is but one style of
riding _taught_, as a system; that style is the manége or military
style. The military style is, and must ever be essentially _a one-handed
style_, for the soldier must have his right hand at liberty for his
weapons. The recruit is indeed made to ride with a single snaffle in two
hands, but only as a preparatory step to the one-handed style. His left
hand then becomes _his bridle hand_, and that hand must hold the reins
in such a manner as will require the least possible aid from _the sword
hand_ to shorten them as occasion may require. This is with the fourth
finger only between them (Fig. 1).
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--STRICT REGIMENTAL.]
For these reasons, as far as soldiers are concerned, I do not see how
the present system can be altered for the better, unless it be by
placing the three last fingers of the left hand between the reins (Fig.
2), instead of the fourth finger only. The reins held in this way are
as easily and as quickly shortened, by drawing them with the right hand
through the left, as if they were separated by the fourth finger only. I
always adopted this mode myself when my sword was in my hand; and I
should think it worth trial for all soldiers. My two last chargers had
been notoriously restive horses, and I could not have ridden them in the
strictly regimental mode.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--VARIED REGIMENTAL.]
[Sidenote: _Two hands_ should be used to the reins.]
But I see no reason why, because soldiers are compelled to guide their
horses with the left hand only, and with the fourth finger only between
the reins, that ladies and civilians should be condemned to the same
system. On the contrary, I would have ladies as well as gentlemen use
both hands to the reins, whether of the curb or of the snaffle, somewhat
as the rough-rider or colt-breaker uses the reins of a single snaffle;
but the reins should enter the hands outside instead of inside the
fourth fingers, and they should quit the hands between the first and
second fingers instead of between the first finger and thumb, as will be
explained in the next chapter.
Fasten the end of a rein to the upper part of the back of a chair; pull
the reins enough to raise two of the legs off the ground, and to keep
the chair balanced on the other two. Take your reins as ladies and
soldiers are taught to take them (Fig. 1), both grasped in the left
hand, the fourth finger only between them, and (I quote from the
regulations of the English cavalry) "the top of the thumb firmly closed
on them--the upper part of the arm hanging straight down from the
shoulder--the left elbow lightly touching the hip--the lower part of the
arm square to the upper--little finger on a level with the elbow--wrist
rounded outwards--the back of the hand to the front--the thumb pointing
across the body, and three inches from it." In this position we are
taught that "the little finger of the bridle-hand has four lines of
action--first, towards the breast (to stop or rein back); second,
towards the right shoulder (to turn to the right); third, towards the
left shoulder (to turn to the left); fourth, towards the horse's head
(to advance)." Try the second motion: you will find it a very nice
operation, and that you are capable of shortening the right rein only in
a very slight degree; you will also find that, if the hand ceases to be
precisely opposite the centre of the body, the moment it is passed to
the right the right rein becomes slackened, and the left rein is pulled.
This is still more the case when the horse's neck is between the reins;
the left rein is then instantly shortened across the neck.
[Sidenote: A soldier's horse must turn on the wrong rein.]
I will not assert that the art of riding thus is impossible, though it
has ever been so to me; and though, in my own experience, I never saw a
cavalry soldier, rough-rider, riding-master, or any horseman whatever,
who turned his horse, single-handed, on the proper rein. But I may
assert that it is an exceedingly nice and delicate art. It is the
opera-dancing of riding. And it would be as absurd to put the skill of
its professors in requisition in common riding or across country, as to
require Taglioni to _chasser_ over a ploughed field. For single-handed
indications, supposing them to be correctly given--which, as I have
said, I have never known; but supposing them to be correctly given--they
are not sufficiently distinct to turn a horse, except in a case of
optimism. That is, supposing for a short time a perfectly broken horse,
in perfect temper, perfectly on his haunches, going perfectly up to his
bit, and on perfect ground. Without all these perfections--suppose even
the circumstance of the horse being excited or alarmed, or becoming
violent from any other cause; that he is sluggish or sullen; that he
stiffens his neck or pokes his nose--single-handed indications are worth
nothing. But as for riding a horse perfectly on his haunches through a
long day's journey, or in rough or deep ground, or across country, one
might as well require infantry to make long forced marches at ordinary
time, and to strictly preserve their touch and dressing; or, still to
compare it to opera-dancing, Coulon to go through a day's shooting with
the pas de zephir.
But correct single-handed indications, with the fourth finger only
between the reins, will not be obeyed by one horse in ten thousand. Try
them in driving. There the terret-pad prevents their being given
incorrectly, and a bearing-rein, a severe bit, and a whip, give you
every advantage in keeping your horse collected; yet you will find them
wholly inefficient. The soldier, who is compelled to turn to the right
by word of command, when the correct indication is unanswered, in
despair throws his hand to the right. The consequence is, that no horse
is a good soldier's horse, till he has been trained to turn on the wrong
rein.
[Sidenote: Common riders turn on the wrong rein.]
Without the same excuse for it, the same may be said of all ladies and
civilians who ride with one hand only, and of almost all who ride with
two hands. For, strange to say, in turning, both hands are generally
passed to the right or left, and I have known many of what may be called
the most perfect straight-_forward_ hands; that is, men who on the turf
would hold the most difficult three-year-old to the steady stroke of the
two-mile course, and place him as a winner to half-a-length--who in the
hunting-field would ride the hottest, or the most phlegmatic made
hunter, with equal skill, through all difficulties of ground, and over
every species of fence, with admirable precision and equality of
hand--or who on the exercise ground would place his broken charger on
his haunches, and make him walk four miles an hour, canter six and a
half, trot eight and a half, and gallop eleven, without being out in
either pace a second of time, but who marred all by the besetting sin of
side-feeling--of turning the horse on the wrong rein. The consequence
is, that they can ride nothing but what has been trained to answer the
wrong indications.
[Sidenote: Result of this with colts or restive horses.]
This is something like steaming without steering. Set them on a finely
broken horse, on a colt, or a restive horse, and they become helpless
children--the powerless prisoners of the brutes they bestride. How often
does one see one's acquaintance in this distressing situation, with
courage enough to dare what man dare, but without the power to do what
the rough-rider has just done! First comes the false indication of the
rider, then the confusion and hesitation of the horse; next the violence
of the rider; then the despair and rebellion of the horse. The finish is
a fractured limb from a rear or a runaway. The poor brute is set down as
restive and in fact becomes more or less a misanthrope for the rest of
his days. I have seen the gentle and brave, under such circumstances,
act very much like the cruel and cowardly; that is to say, first rough
an innocent animal for their own fault, and then yield to his
resistance. It is in consequence of this that we find so many restive
horses; that so few thorough-bred horses--that is, horses of the highest
courage--can be made hunters; that, in fact, almost all high-couraged
young horses become restive after leaving the colt-breaker's hands. It
is, indeed, in consequence of this that the class of people called
colt-breakers exists at all. For if we all rode on their principle,
which is the true principle, any groom or moderately good rider could
break any colt or ride any restive horse.
No horse becomes restive in the colt-breaker's hands; nor do any remain
so when placed in his hands. The reason is that he invariably rides with
one bridle and two hands, instead of two bridles and one hand. When he
wishes to go to the right he pulls the right rein stronger than the
left. When he wishes to go to the left he pulls the left rein stronger
than the right. These are indications which, if the colt will not obey,
he will at least understand, the very first time that he is mounted, and
which the most obstinate will not long resist. But as may be supposed,
it takes a long time to make him understand that he is to turn to the
right when the left rein is pulled, and to the left when the right rein
is pulled. And it is only the meek-spirited and docile who will do this
at all. Such, however, is the general docility of the half-bred horse,
that a great proportion of them are, after long ill-usage, taught to
answer these false indications, in the same way that a carthorse is
brought to turn right or left by the touch of the whip on the opposite
side of the neck, or the word of the driver; and indeed such is the
nicety to which it may be brought, that you constantly hear people boast
that their horses will "turn by the weight of the reins on the neck."
This, however, only proves the docility of the horse, and how badly he
has been ridden. For a horse which has been finely broken should take
notice only of the indications of his rider's hands on his mouth, not of
any side-feeling of the reins against his neck.
[Sidenote: Indications are not _aids_.]
By _indications_ generally, I mean the motions and applications of the
hands, legs, and whip, to direct and determine the paces, turnings,
movements, and carriage of the horse. I have used the word throughout
instead of _aids_, as being more explanatory and certainly less liable
to abuse. For common sense tells us that a horse receives no aid from a
pull in the mouth with a piece of iron, or a blow with a whip, or a kick
in the side with an armed heel, however these may indicate to him the
wishes or commands of his rider. I have also used the term _bearing_ on
the horse's mouth instead of _appui_, since to those who do not
understand French appui will convey no meaning at all,--and to those who
do understand French it will convey the false ideas of the necessity and
power of the rider to _support_ his horse. I promise my pupil every
_aid_ and _support from_ his horse. But I beg him not to think of
offering either aid or support _to_ his horse. I beg him to believe that
the horse carries the rider, and not the rider the horse. But this we
will discuss in another chapter. That the horse supports the rider is
common sense: that the rider supports the horse is the common error.