-it is impossible to achieve,
without considerable practice, based upon proper principles. Many young
ladies, however, feel a delicate repugnance to passing through the
ordeal of a riding-school; some, again, do not reside in situations,
where the benefit of a teacher's directions can be procured; while
others, erroneously flatter themselves, that they are in possession of
every needful acquirement, as regards equestrianism, when they have
discovered how to retain a seat on the saddle, and guide a horse by
means of the bridle. To such of our readers as happen to be comprised
within either of these classes,--and to those, also, who, after having
received a professor's initiative instructions, are desirous of further
improvement, the following pages, if carefully perused, will, the writer
most zealously hopes, prove beneficial.

[Illustration]

FOOTNOTES:

[18-*] Since writing the above, we have been assured by a
friend, that, within a few weeks past, he has seen several ladies, at
Brighton, seated on the wrong side of the horse. Side-saddles, with
moveable crutches, indeed, are now far from uncommon (to our own
knowledge), in saddlers' shops.

EQUESTRIAN TECHNICALITIES.

A few, among the most generally adopted, of these, it will be expedient,
in the first place, to notice and explain.

Most parts in the external structure of the horse are known by names of
obvious signification: but such is not, exactly, the case with all.

[Illustration]

To commence with the anterior limb:--_a_ is the fore pastern; _b_, the
fetlock; _c_, the leg; and _d_, the arm.

In the hind limb, _e_ is the hind pastern; _f_, the hock; _g_, the
stifle; and _h_, the haunch.

The upper surface of the neck, _i_, is denominated the crest; _k_, the
withers, and _l_, the croup.

[Illustration]

In the bridle, supposing it to be double-reined, _a_ is the double
head-stall; _b_, the front; _c_, the nose-band; _d_, the throat-lash;
_e_, _e_, the snaffle rein; and _f_, _f_, the curb rein. At _g_, _g_, is
the martingale.

[Illustration]

In the saddle, _a_, is the near crutch; _b_, the off crutch; _c_, the
cantle; _d_, the crupper; _e_, the safe; _f_, the skirt; _g_, the
stirrup; _h_, the near side half of the surcingle; and _i_, _i_, the
girths.

A lady's right hand is termed the _whip_-hand, and her left, the
_bridle_-hand.

The _near_ side of a horse is that which is on the _left_ of the rider;
and the _off_ side that which