This faulty practice is avoided when the snaffle reins are held one in each hand. We should bear in mind that it is easier to put a beginner into a good position than to rectify a bad seat later on.

To sum up, I may say that the chief good point about a rider is firmness of seat, which is obtained by a correct position and practice. The rider should have, not merely blind pluck, but self-confidence and coolness, without which he will not be able to utilise the useful things he has learned.

It is not necessary to know all about horses in order to ride well. I prefer an unscientific man who can stick on any rideable horse, to one who is strong in theory but weak in practice. The purely theoretical man almost always succeeds in making restive horses which he pretends to break in. He may have enough firmness of seat to give the horse an indication to move, but not sufficient to enable him to enforce his orders when the animal " plays up."

Nothing is worse than to provoke a horse to resistance if the rider has not the pluck to make him give in.

LADY'S SEAT.

Except as regards the legs, a lady should sit on a saddle exactly like a man. For some time there has been talk of ladies riding astride, which practice would deprive her of all feminine grace, and would afford no useful result. The great want in a man's seat is firmness, which would be still more difficult for a woman to acquire if she rode in a cross-saddle, because her thighs are rounder and weaker than those of a man. Discussion of this subject is therefore useless. Ladies who ride astride get such bad falls that they soon give up this practice.

At all paces the shoulders should be parallel to the ears of the horse, which is possible only when the hips occupy a similar position. Therefore the position of the lady depends