o do it
entirely by his arms. It is most important for the beginner to
understand this extremely simple method of mounting, so that, if failure
results, she may know who is in fault. Her only serious error is that of
neglecting to straighten her knee. His crimes in this respect are many.
_First_, he may catch hold of the heel of her boot in the preliminary
stage, and will thus prevent her utilising the play of her left ankle
joint in her spring. Experiment will show that this trick of catching
the heel hampers a lady's movements in mounting much more than might at
first be thought possible. _Second_, from knowing no better, or from a
desire to show off his strength, he may use only one hand to lift the
lady, and will then almost always have cause to regret his superfluity
of self confidence. _Third_, he may stand too far away from her, and
thus bring her left foot too much forward, in which case it will be
almost impossible for her to straighten her left knee. _Fourth_, he may
also prevent her from doing this indispensable part of the performance,
by trying to raise her before she has put her weight on his hands.
_Fifth_, he may stand too far away from the side of the horse, in which
case he is liable to throw her over to the off side of the horse (as
happened once to me), by giving her an oblique instead of a vertical
propulsion. A minor form of this mistake is attempting to put the lady
on the saddle, instead of raising her to the height at which she can
easily take her seat. After a lady has suffered from clumsy attempts to
put her up, it is not to be wondered at if she regards the feat of
mounting as one which requires some peculiar knack to accomplish; and,
as failure in mounting is particularly ungraceful, she naturally becomes
nervous about attempting it. If she has any doubts as to her
capability to mount easily, she might make some preliminary attempts to
stand and support herself for a few seconds on a gentleman's hands, with
her left hand on his shoulder and her right hand on the upper crutch.
When she finds that she can do this successfully, she may, when her leg
is again straight, give him a signal (or take one from him) to raise her
to the necessary height, so that she may sit in the saddle. If she be
very timid, she may practise mounting indoors, with her right hand on
the top of an upright piano, and her left on a gentleman's shoulder as
before. Although it is usual for the gentleman to give the words, "On