Visions of America: Public Representations of the United States Circulating in India from 1870-1900

How to Ride a Horse

Buffalo Bill, a famous prairie scout in an article in the Philadelphia News, says: — “The English style of riding a horse, which is much in vogue here, is very showy, but it will not do for long distances. It is too hard on man and beast. Let any one try to ride a horse fifty miles at anything like a pace in this manner, and both he and his animal will be used up at the end of the journey. It is a constant pound, pound, pound on the saddle and the percussion is too much for a horse or a man to stand. The Earl of Dunraven, and numbers of other noted Englishmen who hunted with me on the plains, rode that way at first; but they soon saw, as he said, 'what bad form it was,' and learned to ride cowboy fashion, greatly to their own comfort and that of their steeds. 'We are all wrong in our ideas of riding, Bill,' said the Earl, when he had mastered the American style. I feel sure that after the Wild West has been in England three months you will see a revolution in the manner of riding over there. How do we get such perfect seats? By gripping out horse with our knees and legs, sitting low, and accommodating ourselves to every motion of the animal. It becomes second nature after a while. I can tell every move that a horse intends making after I have been on his back five minutes. If you want to see how the art of perfect riding is acquired, watch our little Indian boys playing on the burios and ponies. The instant they get near them they mount them. When they are barebacked they have no way of holding themselves on except by gripping with the knees. Their legs are not long enough to catch under the round of the animal's barrel, and yet a six year old youngster will stick on like wax."
__________________

A Book on etiquette tells "how to tell a man larger than yourself that he is a coward." The best way is to tell him through the telephone and then to go our in the country for a few days.

From The Madras Mail. September 30, 1886. Page 6.
 

This page has paths:

This page has tags: