on of her seat. It is said, that when a lady, while her horse is
going at a smart trot, can lean over, on the right side, far enough to
see the horse's shoe, she may be supposed to have established a correct
seat; which, we repeat, she should spare no pains to acquire. In some of
the schools, a pupil is often directed to ride without the stirrup, and,
with her arms placed behind her, while the master holds the long rein,
and urges the horse to various degrees of speed, and in different
directions, in order to settle her firmly and gracefully on the
saddle,--to convince her that there is security without the
stirrup,--and to teach her to accompany, with precision and ease, the
various movements of the horse.

Nothing can be more detrimental to the grace of a lady's appearance on
horseback, than a bad position: a recent author says, it is a sight that
would spoil the finest landscape in the world. What can be much more
ridiculous, than the appearance of a female, whose whole frame, through
mal-position, seems to be the sport of every movement of the horse? If
the lady be not mistress of her seat, and be unable to maintain a proper
position of her limbs and body, so soon as her horse starts into a trot,
she runs the risk of being tossed about on the saddle, like the Halcyon
of the poets in her frail nest,--

"Floating upon the boisterous rude sea."

If the animal should canter, his fair rider's head will be jerked to and
fro as "a vexed weathercock;" her drapery will be blown about, instead
of falling gracefully around her; and her elbows rise and fall, or, as
it were, flap up and down like the pinions of an awkward nestling
endeavouring to fly. To avoid such disagreeable similes being applied to
her, the young lady, who aspires to be a good rider, should, even from
her first lesson in the art, strive to obtain a proper deportment on the
saddle. She ought to be correct, without seeming stiff or formal: and
easy, without appearing slovenly. The position we have described,
subject to occasional variations, will be found, by experience, to be
the most natural and graceful mode of sitting a horse:--it is easy to
the rider and her steed; and enables the former to govern the actions of
the latter so effectually, in all ordinary cases, as to produce that
harmony of motion, which is so much and so deservedly admired.

The balance is conducive to the ease, elegance, and security of the
rider:--it consists in a foreknowledge