Page:Horsemanship for Women.djvu/71

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TO GUIDE "BRIDLEWISE."
57

for it is a habit with horses, as awkward as it is common, to turn one way and look the other. At the same time always lean in your saddle towards the centre of the curve you are describing, and at an angle increasing in proportion to your speed.

Some English writers depreciate the above method of guiding the horse, preferring to use the bit exclusively, but it is almost universal in the United States, and its advantages for ordinary riders are numerous and evident. Indeed, Stonehenge, a well-known English authority, says that in "this way a horse can be turned with a much greater degree of nicety and smoothness than by acting on the corner of his mouth."