the art. My own idea is that he should begin
without reins, so as to acquire a seat totally in-
dependent of his hands, and should never be
trusted with a bridle till it is perfectly immaterial
to him whether he has hold of it or not. Neither
should it be restored, after his stirrups have been
taken away, till he has again proved himself
independent of its support. When he has learnt
to canter round the school, and sit firm over a
102 HIDING RECOLLECTIONS
leaping bar, with his feet swinging loose, and his
hands in his pockets, he will have become a
better horseman than ninety-nine out of every
hundred who go out hunting. Henceforward
you may trust him to take care of himself and
swim alone.
In every art it is well to begin from the very
first with the best method ; and I would instil
into a pupil, even of the tenderest years, that
although his legs, and especially his knees, are
to be applied firmly to his pony's sides, as afford-
ing a security against tumbling off, it is from the
loins that he must really ride, when all is said
and done.
I dare say most of us can remember the
mechanical horse exhibited in Piccadilly some
ten or twelve years ago, a German invention,
remarkable for its ingenuity and the wonderful
accuracy with which it imitated, in an exag-
gerated degree, the kicks, plunges, and other
outrages practised by the most restive of the
species to unseat their riders. Shaped in the
truest symmetry, clad in a real horse's skin,
with flowing mane and tail, this automaton
represented the live animal in every particular,
but for the pivot on which it turned, a shaft
entering the belly below its girths, and com-
municating through the floor with the machinery
that set in motion and regulated its astonishing
vagaries. On mounting, the illusion was com-
SEAT 103
plete. Its very neck was so constructed with
hinges that, on pulling at the bridle, it gave you
its head without changing the direction of its
body, exactly like an unbroken colt as yet in-
tractable to the bit. At a word from the
inventor, spoken in his own language to his
assistants below, this artificial charger committed
every kind of wickedness that could be devised
by a fiend in equine shape. It reared straight
on end ; it lunged forward with its nose between
its fore-feet, and its tail elevated to a perpen-
dicular, awkward and ungainly as that of a swan
in reverse. It lay down on its side ; it rose to
its legs with a bounce, and finally, if the rider's
strength and dexterity enabled him still to
remain in the saddle, it wheeled round and
round with a velocity that could not fail at last
to shoot him out of his seat on to the floor,
humanely spread with mattresses, in anticipation
of this inevitable catastrophe. It is needless to
say how such an exhibition drew, with so horse-
loving a public as our own. No gentleman who
fancied he could "ride a bit" was satisfied till
he had taken his shilling's worth and the
mechanical horse had put him on his back. But
for the mattresses, Piccadilly could have counted
more broken collar-bones than ever did Lei-
cestershire in the blindest and deepest of its
Novembers. Koughriders from the Life- Guards,
Blues, Artillery, and half the cavalry regiments
104 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS
in the service, came to try conclusions with the
spectre ; and, like antagonists of some automaton
chess-player, retired defeated and dismayed.
For this universal failure, one could neither
blame the men nor the military system taught
in their schools. It stands to reason that human
wind and muscle must sooner or later succumb
to mechanical force. The inventor himself
expressed surprise at the consummate horseman-
ship displayed by many of his fallen visitors, and
admitted that more than one rough-rider would
have tired out and subjugated any living creature
of real flesh and blood ; while the essayists
universally declared the imitation so perfect,
that at no period of the struggle could they
believe they were contending with clock-work,
rather than the natural efforts of some wild
unbroken colt.
But those who succeeded best, I remarked
(and I speak with some little experience, having
myself been indebted to the mattresses in my
turn), were the horsemen who, allowing their
loins to play freely, yielding more or less to every
motion of the figure, did not trust exclusively
for firmness of seat to the clasp of their knees
and thighs. The mere balance rider had not a
chance, the athlete who stuck on by main force
found himself hurled into the air, with a violence
proportioned to his own stubborn resistance ; but
the artist who judiciously combined strength
SEAT 105
with skill, giving a little here that he might get
a stronger purchase there, swaying his body
loosely to meet and accompany every motion,
while he kept his legs pressed hard against the
saddle, withstood trick after trick, and shock
after shock creditably enough, till a hint mut-
tered in German that it was time to displace
him, put such mechanism in motion as settled
the matter forthwith.
There was one detail, however, to be observed
in the equipment of the mechanical horse that
brings us to a question I have heard discussed
amongst the best riders with very decided
opinions on either side.
Formerly every saddle used to be made with
padding about half an inch deep, sewn in the
front rim of the flap against which a rider rests
his knee, for the purpose, as it would seem, of
affording him a stronger seat with its resistance
and support.
Thirty or forty years ago a few noted sportsmen,
despising such adventitious aid, began to adopt
the open, or plain-flapped saddle ; and, although
not universal, it has now come into general use.
It would certainly, of the two, have been the
better adapted to the automaton I have described,
as an inequality of surface was sadly in the way
when the figure in its downward perpendicular,
brought the rider's foot parallel with the point
of its shoulders. The man's calf then neces-
106 BIDING EECOLLECTIONS
sarily slipped over the padding of his saddle,
and it was impossible for him to get his leg
back to its right place in time for a fresh out-
break when the model rose again to its proper
level.
As I would prefer an open saddle for the
artificial, so I do for the natural horse, and I
will explain why.
I take it as a general and elementary rule,
there is no better position for a rider than that
which brings shoulder, hip, knee, and heel into
one perpendicular line. A man thus placed on
his horse cannot but sit well down with a bend
in his back, and in this attitude, the one into
which he would naturally fall, if riding at full
speed, he has not only security of seat, but great
command over the animal he bestrides. He
will find, nevertheless, in crossing a country,
or otherwise practising feats of horsemanship
requiring the exercise of strength, that to get
his knee an inch or two in advance of the
correct line will afford such leverage as it were
for the rest of his body as gives considerable
advantage in any unusual difficulty, such as a
drop-leap, for instance, with which he may have
to contend. Now in the plain-flapped saddle,
he can bend his leg as much as he likes, and
put it indeed where he will.
This facility, too, is very useful in smuggling
through a gap by a tree, often the most con-
SEAT 107
venient egress, to make use of which, with a
little skill and prudence, is a less hazardous
experiment than it looks. A horse will take
good care not to graze his own skin, and the
space that admits of clearing his hips is wide
enough for his rider's leg as well, if he hangs it
over the animal's shoulder just where its neck
is set on to the withers. But I would caution
him to adopt this attitude carefully, and, above
all, in good time. He should take his foot out
of the stirrup and make his preparatory arrange-
ments some three or four strides off at least, so
as to accommodate his change of seat to the
horse's canter before rising at the leap, and if
he can spare his hand nearest the tree, so as to
" fend it off " a little at the same time, he will
be surprised to find how safely and pleasantly
he accomplished a transit through some awkward
and dangerous fence.
But he must beware of delaying this little
manoeuvre till the last moment, when his horse
is about to spring. It is then too late, and he
will either find himself so thrown out of his seat
as to lose balance and grip too, or will try to
save his leg by shifting it back instead of
forward, when much confusion, bad language,
and perhaps a broken knee-pan will be the
result.
Amongst other advantages of the open saddle
we must not forget that it is cheaper by twenty
108 BIDING- RECOLLECTIONS
shillings, and so sets off the shape of his fore-
hand as to make a hunter look more valuable
by twenty pounds.
Nevertheless, it is still repudiated by some of
our finest horsemen, who allege the sufficient
reason that an inch or so of stuffing adds to
their strength and security of seat. This, after
all is, the sine qua non, to which every article of
equipment, even the important items of boots
and breeches, should be subservient, and I may
here remark that ease and freedom of dress are
indispensable to a man who wishes to ride across
a country not only in comfort, but in safety. I
am convinced that tight, ill-fitting leathers may
have broken bones to answer for. Many a good
fellow comes down to breakfast, stiff of gait, as
if he were clothed in buckram, and can we
wonder that he is hurt when thus hampered and
constrained, he falls stark and rigid, like a paste-
board policeman in a pantomime.
I have already protested against the solecism
of saving yourself by the bridle. It is better, if
you must have assistance, to follow the example
of two or three notoriously fine riders and grasp
the cantle of the saddle at the risk of breaking
its tree. But in my humble opinion it is not
well to be in the wrong even with Plato, and,
notwithstanding these high authorities, we must
consider such habits, however convenient on
occasion, as errors in horsemanship. To a good
SEAT 109
rider the saddle ought to be a place of security
as easy as an armchair.
I have heard it asserted, usually by persons
of lean and wiry frames, that with short legs
and round thighs, it is impossible to acquire a
firm seat on horseback; but in this, as in most
matters of skill, I believe nature can be rendered
obedient to education. Few men are so clumsily
shaped but that they may learn to become strong
and skilful riders if they will adopt a good
system, and from the first resolve to sit in the
right place; this, I think, should be in the very
middle of the saddle, while bending the small of
the back inwards, so that the weight of the body
rests on that part of a horse's spine immediately
behind his withers, under which his fore feet are
placed, and on which, it has been ascertained,
he can bear the heaviest load. When the
animal stands perfectly still, or when it is ex-
tended at full speed, the most inexperienced
horseman seems to fall naturally into the required
position ; but to preserve it, even through the
regulated paces of the riding school demands
constant effort and attention. The back-board
is here, in my opinion, of great assistance to the
beginner, as it forces him into an attitude that
causes him to sit on the right part of his own
person and his horse's back. It compels him
also to carry his hands at a considerable distance
off the horse's head, and thus entails also the
desideratum of long reins.
110 BIDINO BECOLLECTIONS
The shortest and surest way, however, of
attaining a firm seat on horseback is, after all,
to practise without stirrups on every available
opportunity. Many a valuable lesson may be
taken while riding to covert and nobody but the
student be a bit the wiser. Thus to trot and
canter along, for two or three miles on end is no
bad training at the beginning of the season, and
even an experienced horseman will be surprised
to find how it gets him down in his saddle, and
makes him feel as much at home there as he did
in the previous March.
The late Captain Percy Williams, as brilliant
a rider over a country as ever cheered a hound,
and to whom few professional jockeys would
have cared to give five pounds on a race-course,
assured me that he attributed to the above self-
denying exercise that strength in the saddle
which used to serve him so well from the
distance home. When quartered at Hounslow
with his regiment, the 9th Lancers, like other
gay young light dragoons, he liked to spend all
his available time in London. There were no
railroads in those days, and the coaches did not
always suit for time ; but he owned a sound,
speedy, high-trotting hack, and on this " bone
setter" he travelled backwards and forwards
twelve miles of the great Bath Koad, with
military regularity, half as many times a week.
He made it a rule to cross the stirrups over his
SEAT 111
horse's shoulders the moment he was off the
stones at either end, only to be replaced when
he reached his destination. In three months'
time, he told me, he had gained more practical
knowledge of horsemanship, and more muscular
power below the waist, than in all the hunting,
larking, and riding-school drill of the previous
three years.
Grace is, after all, but the result of repressed
strength. The loose and easy seat that seems
to sway so carelessly with every motion, can
tighten itself by instinct to the compression of a
vice, and the " prettiest rider," as they say in
Ireland, is probably the one whom a kicker or
buck- jumper would find the most difficult to
dislodge. No doubt in the field, the ride, the
parade, or the polo-ground a strong seat is the
first of those many qualities that constitute
good horsemanship. The real adept is not to
be unseated by any catastrophe less conclusive
than complete downfall of man and beast ; nay,
even then he parts company without confusion,
and it may be said of him as of "William of
Deloraine," good at need in a like predicament
" Still sate the warrior, saddle fast,
Till, stumbling in the mortal shock,
Down went the steed, the girthing broke,
Hurled in a heap lay man and horse."
But I have a strong idea Sir William did not
let his bridle go even then.
CHAPTER VII
VALOUE
11 HE that would venture nothing must not get
on horseback," says a Spanish proverb, and the
same caution seems applicable to most manly
amusements or pursuits. We cannot enter a
boat, put on a pair of skates, take a gun in hand
for covert shooting, or even run downstairs in a
hurry without encountering risk ; but the amount
of peril to which a horseman subjects himself
seems proportioned inversely to the unconscious-
ness of it he displays.
"Where there is no fear there is no danger,"
though a somewhat reckless aphorism, is more
applicable, I think, to the exercise of riding than
to any other venture of neck and limbs. The
horse is an animal of exceedingly nervous
temperament, sympathetic too, in the highest
degree, with the hand from which he takes his
instructions. Its slightest vacillation affects
him with electric rapidity, but from its steadiness
VALOUR 113
he derives moral encouragement rather than
physical support, and on those rare occasions
when his own is insufficient, he seems to borrow
daring and resolution from his rider.
If the man's heart is in the right place, his
horse will seldom fail him ; and were we asked
to name the one essential without which it is
impossible to attain thorough proficiency in
the saddle, we should not hesitate to say
nerve.
Nerve, I repeat, in contradistinction to pluck.
The latter takes us into a difficulty, the former
brings us out of it. Both are comprised in the
noble quality we call emphatically valour, but
while the one is a brilliant and imposing
costume, so is the other an honest wear-and-
tear fabric, equally fit for all weathers, fine and
foul.
"You shiver, Colonel you are afraid," said
an insubordinate Major, who ought to have been
put under arrest then and there, to his com-
manding officer on the field of Prestonpans.
" I am afraid, sir," answered the Colonel ; " and
if you were as much afraid as I am, you ivould
run away ! "
I have often thought this improbable anecdote
exemplifies very clearly that most meritorious of
all courage which asserts the dominion of our
will over our senses. The Colonel's answer
proves he was full of valour. He had lots of
8
114 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS
pluck, but, as he was bold enough to admit, a
deficiency of nerve.
Now the field of Diana happily requires but a
slight percentage of daring and resolution com-
pared with the field of Mars. I heard the late
Sir Francis Head, distinguished as a soldier, a
statesman, an author, and a sportsman, put the
matter in a few words, very tersely and ex-
ceedingly to the point. " Under fire," said he,
"there is a guinea's-worth of danger, but it
comes to you. In the hunting-field, there is
only three-ha'p'orth, but you go to it I " In
both cases, the courage required is a mere
question of degree, and as in war, so in the
chase, he is most likely to distinguish himself
whose daring, not to be dismayed, is tempered
with coolness, whose heart is always stout and
hopeful, while he never loses his head.
Now as I understand the terms pluck and
nerve, I conceive the first to be a moral quality,
the result of education, sentiment, self-respect,
and certain high aspirations of the intellect ;
the second, a gift of nature dependent on the
health, the circulation, and the liver. As
memory to imagination in the student, so is
nerve to pluck in the horseman. Not the more
brilliant quality, nor the more captivating, but
sound, lasting, available for all emergencies, and
sure to conquer in the long run.
We will suppose two sportsmen are crossing
VALOUR 115
a country equally well mounted, and each full
of valour to the brim. A, to quote his admiring
friends, "has the pluck of the devil!" B, to
use a favourite expression of the saddle-room,
"has a good nerve." Both are bound to come
to grief over some forbidding rails at a corner,
the only way out, in the line hounds are running,
and neither has any more idea of declining than
had poor Lord Strathmore on a similar occasion
when Jem Mason halloaed to him, "Eternal
misery on this side my lord, and certain death
on the other!" So they harden their hearts,
sit down in their saddles, and this is what
happens :
A's horse, injudiciously sent at the obstacle,
because it is awkward, a turn too fast, slips in
taking off, and strikes the top-rail, which neither
bends nor breaks, just below its knees. A flurried
snatch at the bridle pulls its head in the air,
and throws the animal skilfully to the ground
at the moment it most requires perfect freedom
for a desperate effort to keep on its legs. Eider
and horse roll over in an "imperial crowner,"
and rise to their feet looking wildly about them,
totally disconnected, and five or six yards apart.
This is not encouraging for B, who is obliged
to follow, inasmuch as the place only offers
room for one at a time, but as soon as his leader
is out of the way, he comes steadily and quietly
at the leap. His horse, too, slips in the tracks
116 BIDING RECOLLECTIONS
of its fallen comrade, but as it is going in a
more collected form, it contrives to get its fore-
legs over the impediment, which catches it,
however, inside the hocks, so that, balancing for
a moment, it comes heavily on its nose. During
these evolutions, B sits motionless in the saddle,
giving the animal complete liberty of rein. An
instinct of self-preservation and a good pair of
shoulders turn the scale at the last moment, and
although there is no denying they "had a squeak
for it" in the scramble, B and his horse come
off without a fall.
Now it was pluck that took both these riders
into the difficulty, but nerve that extricated one
of them without defeat.
I am not old enough to have seen the famous
Mr. Assheton Smith in the hunting-field, but
many of my early Leicestershire friends could
remember him perfectly at his best, when he
hunted that fine and formidable country, with
the avowed determination, daily carried out, of
going into every field with his hounds !
The expenditure of valour, for it really deserves
the name, necessary to carry out such a style
of riding can only be appreciated by those who
have tried to keep in a good place during thirty
or forty minutes, over any part of the Quorn and
Cottesmore counties lying within six miles of
Billesdon. Where should we be but for the
gates? I think I may answer, neither there
VALOUR 117
nor thereabouts ! I have reason to believe the
many stories told of "Tom Smith's" skill and
daring are little, if at all, exaggerated. He
seems admitted by all to have been the boldest,
as he was one of the best, horsemen that ever
got into a saddle with a hunting-whip in his
hand.
Though subsequently a man of enormous
wealth, in the prime of life, he lived on the
allowance, adequate but not extravagant, made
him by his father, and did by no means give
those high prices for horses, which, on the
principle that "money makes the mare to go," are
believed by many sportsmen to ensure a place in
the front rank. He entertained no fancies as to
size, action, above all, peculiarities in mouths
and tempers. Little or big, sulky, violent, or
restive, if a horse could gallop and jump, he was a
hunter the moment he found himself between
the legs of Tom Smith.
There is a namesake of his hunting at present
from Melton, who seems to have taken several
leaves out of his book. Captain Arthur Smith,
with every advantage of weight, nerve, skill,
seat, and hand, is never away from the hounds.
Moreover, he always likes his horse, and his
horse always seems to like him. This gentle-
man, too, is blessed with an imperturbable
temper, which I have been given to understand
the squire of Tedworth was not.
118 BIDING RECOLLECTIONS
Instances of Torn Smith's daring are endless.
How characteristic was his request to a farmer
near Glengorse, that he would construct such a
fence as should effectually prevent the field from
getting away in too close proximity to his
hounds. " I can make you a stopper," said the
good-natured yeoman, " and welcome ; but what
be you to do yourself, Squire, for I know you like
well to be with 'em when they run ? "
" Never mind me," was the answer, " 3 T ou do
what I ask you. I never saw a fence in this
country I couldn't get over with a fall ! " and,
sure enough, the first day the hounds found a
fox in that well-known covert, Tom Smith was
seen striding along in the wake of his darlings,
having tumbled neck-and-crop over the obstacle
he had demanded, in perfect good humour and
content.
If valour, then, is a combination of pluck and
nerve, he may be called the most valorous sports-
man that ever got upon a horse, while affording
another example of the partiality with which
fortune favours the bold, for although he has had
between eighty and ninety falls in a season, he
was never really hurt, I believe, but once in his
life.
" That is a brave man ! " I have heard Lord
Gardner say in good-humoured derision, pointing
to some adventurous sportsman, whose daring so
far exceeded his dexterity as to bring horse and
VALOUR 119
rider into trouble ; but bis lordsbip's own nerve
was so undeniable, that like many others, he
may have undervalued a quality of which he
could not comprehend the want.
Most hunting-men, I fancy, will agree with
me, that of all obstacles we meet with in crossing
a country, timber draws most largely on the
reserve fund of courage hoarded away in that
part of a hero's heart which is nearest his
mouth. The highest rails I ever saw attempted
were ridden at by Lord Gardner some years ago,
while out with Mr. Tailby's hounds near the
Kam's Head. With a fair holding scent, and
the pack bustling their fox along over the grass,
there was no time for measurement, but I
remember perfectly well that being in the same
field, some fifty yards behind him, and casting
longing looks at the fence, totally impracticable
in every part, I felt satisfied the corner he made
for was simply an impossibility.
" We had better turn round and go home ! " I
muttered in my despair.
The leap consisted of four strong rails, higher
than a horse's withers, an approach down hill, a
take-off poached by cattle, and a landing into a
deep muddy lane. I can recall at this moment,