Riding school

“ Riding-school work forms the chief portion of his training as a recruit, when he is taught to ride both with and without stirrups, to take jumps with folded arms, to vault on to a horse’s back, and, in brief, to do all that can be done with a horse. ”

“ No good riding master will teach a pupil to cluck or will permit the practice to pass unreproved, and riding-school horses do not understand it, and are quite as likely to start at the cluck of a rider on the other side of the ring as they are when a similar noise is made by the person on their own backs. ”

“ A riding-school teacher will generally understand all the requirements necessary for a lady's saddle-horse, and may be safely intrusted with the animal's education. If no riding-school master of established reputation as a trainer can be had, it may be possible to secure the services of some one near the lady's home, as she can then superintend the colt's education herself and be sure that he is treated neither rashly nor cruelly. ”

“ A horse which has been given a good mouth, and has been taught as far as the volte and demi-volte, simple and reversed (though indeed the riding-school volte and the volte of the Haute Ecole are different things) , certainly knows a fairish amount, and may be able to teach his rider much of what he knows. But riding in a school is not road-riding, although a school-horse may have profited well by his education. Leaping a school hurdle is not riding to hounds. A thoroughly good riding-school horse may be a very brute when in the park. ”

“ For civil purposes, the stock saddle, and a little guidance from horsemen will teach a man to ride, and the riding school would merely delay his progress. But Army purposes require a firm seat, a gentle hand to control the horse for military formations, and a perfect suppleness from the waist upwards for the use of weapons. These three vital needs involve a riding school. So the rookie is introduced to the riding school horse. Outside the school that horse is an iron-mouthed brute, who joggles, and cannot be induced to work apart from his comrades. ”

“ None but those in rugged health ever withstand it, and no one without a perfect physical organization should undertake it. The ordinary exercises of the riding-school are trifles as compared with the tasks imposed in professional training. When a woman has obtained all the knowledge to be acquired in a riding-school, she has only got the rudiments of real equestrian art. She must then enter the circus ring and familiarize herself with the duties required of her there. ”

“ She only came in for one ride, and so they gave her a horse without looking up her reference, but one of the masters knew her real name. Poor little goosey! She has simply spoiled her chance of ever becoming a regular pupil, no matter how much she may desire it. No riding master will give lessons to a person who behaves so. He would lose more than he gained by it, no matter how long she took lessons. And they know everybody in a riding-school, although they won't gossip. ”

“ In the largest riding school there is a gallery, a refreshment room, reading room, several dressing rooms, a bandstand, and seating accommodation for hundreds of people. The proprietor told me that in the winter months when the weather is too bad for outside riding, ladies ride in the schools, and various entertainments are given. I saw a large number of ladies riding in the Tiergarten, although it was out of the season, and I expected to find the ride as empty as Rotten Row in the winter months. ”

“ The riding-master or the riding-school will provide a horse already trained, with all the needed apparatus. It is then not necessary for the pupil to train the animal; but only to learn to mount and dismount; to sit properly on the horse when standing, walking, trotting, or galloping, in a word, to make his seat ”

“ In most schools, you will be made to mount from the ground, and you will find it surprisingly and delightfully easy to you. What it may be to the master who puts you into the saddle is another matter, but nine out of ten teachers will make no complaint, and will assure you that they do very well.
If you wish to deceive any other girl's inconsiderate mother whom you may find comfortably seated in a good position for criticism, and to make her suppose that you are an old rider, keep silence. ”

“ Lessons in the school alone can seldom make a good rider. In it the horse and the pupil become accustomed to the same monotonous routine day after day; but when they emerge on the road it is found that the expert rider of the school is deficient in tact and skill ”

“ Circling to the right, when riding in the track of the riding-school, is also a useful exercise for this purpose, but as riding-schools are not always to be had conveniently, the lunge line will be found very useful, many riders, indeed, considering it even better than riding in the ring, as it keeps the horse well up to his gait. ”

“ It is rather fashionable to sneer at the riding-school horse as too mild for the use of a good rider, and very likely, while you and Nell are patiently trying your little experiment, you will hear a youth with very evident straps on his trousers, superciliously requesting to have "something spirited" brought in from the stable for him. ”

“ What you need now is practice, preferably in the ring with a teacher, but if you cannot afford that, without a teacher, and road rides whenever you can have them on a safe horse, taken from a school stable, if possible, with companions like yourself, intent upon study and enjoyment, not upon displaying their habits, or, if they be men, the airs of their horses, and the correctness of their equipment, or upon racing. ”

“ Although our limits will not permit us to enter into an elaborate detail of the lessons taken by a pupil in the riding school, it is right that we should give the learner a few useful hints on the rudiments of riding, and not devote our whole space to the improvement of those who have made considerable progress. ”

“ In a riding-school it is very easy to have lofty temporary partitions. It is probable that in future every riding-school will have a Rarey box for training hacks, as well as to enable pupils to practise the art. ”

“ They have been trying "to walk before they could creep," or, in other words, their lessons in riding have been conducted too hastily. They have begun to try a canter or a rapid gallop before they knew how to sit correctly upon their horses, or even to manage them properly in a walk. This desire to make too rapid progress is more frequently the fault of the pupil than of the riding teacher. Most teachers have an ambition to make finished riders of their pupils, and take much pride in doing so, especially as such a result adds greatly to the prestige of their school. ”

“ For all these reasons, the European riding master is often misunderstood, even by his older pupils, and young girls almost invariably mistake his patient reiteration and his methodical vivacity for anger, so that his classes seldom contain any pupils not really anxious to learn, or whose parents are not determined that they shall learn in his school and no other. ”

“ It is a little, especially if the corners of the ring are so near together that the horse goes in a circle, for then the rider has to lean to the right, while on the road she may sit straight. Give me the right kind of horse for my pupil to ride, and I would as leif give lessons on the road as anywhere, but it is not well for the pupil, whose attention is distracted by a thousand things, and who learns less in a year than she would in a month in school. There is no finish about the riding of a woman so taught. ”

“ Remember, however, that your best riding-school master is behind your own pretty forehead, and that your brain can save your muscles many a strain and many a pound of labor. And remember, too, that, in riding, as in everything else, to him that hath shall be given, and the harder and firmer your muscles when you begin, the greater will be the benefit which you will derive from your rides, and the more you will enjoy them. ”

“ Riding should, I think, be as much a part of a child’s education as any of the subjects taught at school; in fact, I would paraphrase and say that “Reading, Riding, and ’Rithmetic” were the essential elements of every child’s education. All children find in it the keenest pleasure, and to the delicate child it offers salvation. Once the first difficulties are overcome, the benefits are soon realized. ”

“ But supposing it to be impossible, a pupil may be well taught by exercises in the school, just as officers are taught at West Point or at Saumur. One thing alone is certain: seat can never be acquired by desultory riding or by riding exclusively on the roads or in parks.
Next, as to management. Without doubt the English dash and energy—in a word, rough-riding—is the first essential for any one who hopes to be either safe or happy on a horse. It is the foundation, without which nothing can avail. ”

“ You are fortunate in arriving half way between two "hours," and find to your delight that you may begin to ride with five or six other pupils on the next stroke of the clock, and you hasten to array yourself, and come forth just in time to see another class, a long line of pretty girls, making its closing rounds, the leader sitting with exquisitely balanced poise, which seems perfectly careless, but is the result of years of training and practice ”

“ If, however, it is necessary again to go through the instruction, the horse should not be put at the place back again, but the end of the canvas be rolled up and the wattle removed, so as to admit of his passing to the longer reach of the school. These lessons should be given daily until the pupil executes them with the requisite energy and correctness of riding, the instructor taking special care never to ask his pupil, however, to do such jumps unless he sees that she is quite equal in health and good spirits to the occasion. ”

“ Other riders enter: two or three men mounted on their own horses, beautiful creatures concerning whose value fabulous tales are told in the stable; the best rider of the school, very quietly and correctly dressed, and managing her horse so easily that the women in the gallery do not perceive that she is guiding him at all, although the real judges, old soldiers, a stray racing man or two, the other school pupils and the master—regard her admiringly, and the grooms, as they bring in new horses, keep an eye on her and her movements, as they linger on their way back to the stable. ”

“ Class riding has become one of the [61] most enjoyable evening recreations of New York during the winter months. Every night in the week different classes fill the big riding academies and ride to the accompaniment of music. The classes are led by professors of the school, and are put through many fancy figures, which are varied with plain riding, sometimes the gallop, sometimes the sitting trot and more frequently the rising trot. On special nights jumping and exhibition riding of the most difficult sort are given. ”

“ Turn instantly, place your knee over the pommel and thrust your foot into the stirrup, if you possibly can, without waiting for assistance. Teachers of experience, riding masters, dancing masters, musicians, artists, gymnasts, will unite in telling you that unless a pupil's mental qualities be rather extraordinary, it is more difficult to impart knowledge at a second lesson than at the first, simply because the pupil gives less attention, expecting his muscles to work mechanically. ”

“ If American children and American girls were the angels which their mothers and their lovers tell them that they are, the best possible riding master for them would be an American soldier who had learned and taught riding at West Point. Being of the same race, pupil and teacher would have that vast fund of common memories, hopes and feelings ”

“ Before the canvas arrangement is stretched across the riding-house, the pupil should be instructed to set her horse going at a free striding canter—as fast as is compatible with safety in turning the corners, which should be well cut off in this case, the pupil riding a half-circle at both ends of the school. After two or three turns round the house at this pace, in order to get the horse well into his stride, the assistants should arrange the jump while the instructor prepares his pupil for it. ”

“ But you object that you cannot afford to pay for very careful, minute, and long-continued training; that you must content yourself with such teaching as you can obtain by riding in a ring under the charge of two or three masters, receiving such instruction as they find time to give you while maintaining order and looking after an indefinite number of other pupils. ”

“ To some riding comes easily, to others it is difficult, while some others seem absolutely incapable of acquiring 235a good seat, good hands, and that knowledge of horse nature which complete the equipment of every expert in the art. I confess that I do not know much about riding schools, nor indeed that I have seen much of them. When I was a boy in Kentucky there were no riding schools there, and I am not at all sure that there have ever been. ”

“ Therefore, let everyone interested in the horsemanship of a young lady commence by placing her, as early as possible, under the tuition of a competent professional riding-master, unless he knows enough to teach her himself. There are many riding-schools where a fair seat is acquired by the lady pupils, but in London, at any rate, only two or three where they learn to use the reins, so as to control an unruly horse. ”