have frequently been made to build a saddle with two flaps and movable third pommel, but the result has been far from satisfactory. A glance at a side-saddle tree will at once demonstrate the difficulty the saddler has to meet, add to this a heavy and ungainly appearance. The only way in which the shift can be obtained is by having two saddles.

NAOMI (A HIGH-CASTE ARABIAN MARE).

CHAPTER II.

THE LADY'S HORSE.

There is no more difficult animal to find on the face of the earth than a perfect lady's horse. It is not every one that can indulge in the luxury of a two-hundred-and-fifty to three-hundred-guinea hack, and yet looks, action, and manners will always command that figure, and more. Some people say, what can carry a man can carry a woman. What says Mrs. Power O'Donoghue to this: "A heavy horse is never in any way suitable to a lady. It looks amiss. The trot is invariably laboured, and if the animal should chance to fall, he gives his rider what we know in the hunting-field as 'a mighty crusher.' It is indeed, a rare thing to meet a perfect 'lady's horse.' In all my wide experience I have met but two. Breeding is necessary for stability and speed—two things most essential to a hunter; but good light action is, for a roadster, positively indispensable, and a horse who does not possess it is a burden to his rider, and is, moreover, exceedingly unsafe, as he is apt to stumble at every rut and stone."

Barry Cornwall must have had something akin to perfection in his mind's eye when penning the following lines:—

How often do we hear it remarked of a neat blood-looking nag, "Yes, very pretty and blood-like, but there's nothing of him; only fit to carry a woman." No greater mistake can be made, for if we consider the matter in all its bearings, we shall see that the lady should be rather over than under mounted.

The average weight of English ladies is said to be nine stone; to that must be added another stone for saddle and bridle (I don't know if the habit and other habiliments be included in the nine stone), and we must give them another stone in hand; or eleven stone in all. A blood, or at furthest, two crosses of blood on a good foundation, horse will carry this weight as well as it can be carried. It is a fault among thoroughbreds that they do not bend the knee sufficiently; but there are exceptions to this rule. I know of two Stud Book sires, by Lowlander, that can trot against the highest stepping hackney or roadster in the kingdom, and, if trained, could put the dust in the eyes of nine out of ten of the much-vaunted standard American trotters. Their bold, elegant, and elastic paces come up to the ideal poetry of action, carrying themselves majestically, all their movements like clockwork, for truth and regularity. The award of a first prize as a hunter sire to one of these horses establishes his claim to symmetry, but, being full sixteen hands and built on weight-carrying lines, he is just one or two inches too tall for carrying any equestrienne short of a daughter of Anak.

Though too often faulty in formation of shoulders, thoroughbreds, as their name implies, are generally full of quality and, under good treatment, generous horses. I do not chime in with those who maintain that a horse can do no wrong, but do assert that he comes into the world poisoned by a considerably less dose of original sin than we, who hold dominion over him, are cursed with.

Two-year-olds that have been tried and found lacking that keen edge of speed so necessary in these degenerate days of "sprinting," many of them cast in "beauty's mould," are turned out of training and are to be picked up at very reasonable prices. Never having known a bit more severe than that of the colt-breaker and the snaffle, the bars of their mouths are not yet callous, and being rescued from the clutches of the riding lads of the training-stable, before they are spoiled as to temper, they may, in many instances, under good tuition, be converted into admirable ladies' horses—hacks or hunters. They would not be saleable till four years old, but seven shillings a week would give them a run at grass and a couple of feeds of oats till such time as they be thoroughly taken in hand, conditioned, and taught their business. The margin for profit on well bought animals of this description, and their selling price as perfect lady's horses, are very considerable.

In my opinion no horse can be too good or too perfectly trained for a lady. Some Amazons can ride anything, play cricket, polo, golf, lawn-tennis, fence, scale the Alps, etc., and I have known one or two go tiger-shooting. But all are not manly women, despite fashion, trending in that unnatural, unlovable direction. One of their own sex describes them as "gentle, kindly, and cowardly." That all are not heroines, I admit, but no one who witnessed or even read of their devoted courage during the dark days of the Indian mutiny, can question their ability to face terrible danger with superlative valour. The heroism of Mrs. Grimwood at Manipur is fresh in our memory. What the majority are wanting in is nerve. I have seen a few women go to hounds as well and as straight as the ordinary run of first-flight men. That I do not consider the lady's seat less secure than that of the cross-seated sterner sex, may be inferred from the sketch of the rough-rider in my companion volume for masculine readers, demonstrating "the last resource," and giving practical exemplification of the proverb, "He that can quietly endure overcometh." What women lack, in dealing with an awkward, badly broken, unruly horse, is muscular force, dogged determination, and the ability to struggle and persevere. Good nerve and good temper are essentials.

Having given Barry Cornwall's poetic ideal of a horse, I now venture on a further rhyming sketch of what may fairly be termed "a good sort":—

My unhesitating advice to ladies is Never buy for yourself. Having described what you want to some well-known judge who is acquainted with your style of riding, and who knows the kind of animal most likely to suit your temperament, tell him to go to a certain price, and, if he be a gentleman you will not be disappointed. You won't get perfection, for that never existed outside the garden of Eden, but you will be well carried and get your money's worth. Ladies are not fit to cope with dealers, unless the latter be top-sawyers of the trade, have a character to lose, and can be trusted. There has been a certain moral obliquity attached to dealing in horses ever since, and probably before, they of the House of Togarmah traded in