Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 July 1875 — How Children Should Be Taught to Ride. [ARTICLE]

How Children Should Be Taught to Ride.

In the first lesson the boy or girl should not be allowed to take hold of the bridle at all. A good example in this respect is presented by the practice of professional circus-riders. Their children, boys and girls, commence their equestrian"education at about ten years of age under the instruction of a strict, sometimes a very severe, teacher. I have had the advantage at the Agricultural Hall of watching the whole course of instruction of the children of professional circus-riders from day to day, from the first elementary lesson to the finishing touches of le haute ecole. The circus children are of course taught to ride entirely by balance. The lessons are given in the circus ring on a pony trained to canter at a very even pace. Sometimes a soft pad is used, sometimes the animal is bareback; but in either case, until the pupils are far advanced, they are not allowed any bridle. The pony is held with flap-reins, the inner rein—the rein near to the inside of the circle—being buckled shorter than the outside rein, so that it can only canter slowly, while the teacher restrains the pony with a lunging rein, and urges it, when necessary, with a driving whip. The child, whether boy or girl, commences by riding astride ancl is taught to sit upright in any easy position, just like the Greek equestrian statues in the Greek court at the Crystal Palace, with the shoulders thrown well back, a hand resting on each knee, or with the arms crossedon the breast. Thus no trick of holding on by the bridle or leaning over the pommel can be acquired.— Cassell's “ Book of the Horse."