Page:Horsemanship for Women.djvu/97

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RIDING IN CIRCLES.—CHANGE OF LEADING FOOT.
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ready to wheel to the right; but when he turns to the left, whether carrying man or woman, he must change and lead with the left foot; and if he has not sense enough to do so himself, you must teach him.

This, really, is not an easy task for an amateur, especially for the amateur feminine, who has not the efficient masculine resource of a pair of spurred heels. Even with their aid a man is often so embarrassed to make his horse comprehend that he gives up the attempt, and contents himself with "slowing down" before turning, his failure usually resulting from the insufficient previous training of the horse, coupled with his own ignorance of the successive short steps by which the latter may be led up to the performance of the wished-for act.

If you have been exact in the instruction hitherto given—if your bitting has been so thorough that your horse remains "light in hand" during all the manoeuvres described in the foregoing lessons; if he responds instantly to the pressure of the rein upon the neck, and to the touch of the heel and of the whip upon the flank, so that you can move the forehand and the croup separately or at the same time in the same or in opposite directions; if he will rise from a walk into a canter without trotting; and if, finally, your drilling in the flexions of the neck permits you to bend his head to right or left when at rest or in motion without affecting the position of the forehand—then your horse is thor-