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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from On Horsemanship by Xenophon: gallop, the rider ought to bend forward, since the horse will be less
likely to slip from under; and so to pitch his rider off. So again in
pulling him up short[8] the rider should lean back; and thus escape a
shock. In leaping a ditch or tearing up a steep incline, it is no bad
plan to let go the reins and take hold of the mane, so that the animal
may not feel the burthen of the bit in addition to that of the ground.
In going down a steep incline the rider must throw himself right back
and hold in the horse with the bit, to prevent himself being hurled
headforemost down the slope himself if not his horse.
[7] Or, "to each set of occurrences."
[8] Al. "when the horse is being brought to a poise" (Morgan); and see
On Horsemanship |
