then, is this moral effect? But let the animal once start to move, then he must immediately be sensible of the rider's quality. The rider who has a correct seat will not permit his mount to proceed according to its own fancy, but will constrain it, confidently, unhesitatingly, by rational and positive means. On the other hand, the rider whose seat is not firm will sometimes surprise his horse and sometimes let it go. His control will be strained, hesitating; and the horse will feel this.
Moreover, in spite of inconsistencies in certain systems, I cannot but believe—and the longer I study, the better I am convinced—that the seat is much improved by training horses for one's self. For after all, it matters little what the origin or the quality of the particular system adopted, so long as the rider takes and gives with hands and legs, and thus learns to move his members without disturbing his seat. Whenever, by constant practice, this habit has become fixed, then the rider will maintain his seat without ever thinking of it at all. But in that case, he will, obviously, communicate his own confidence to his horse, while at the same time he forestalls easily any untoward movement, rearing, bucking, arching the back, shaking the head, kicking, and the rest.
But how can a rider do all this without self-confidence; and how shall he be self-confident without a steady seat? The indifferent rider, who lets his horse go as he will, who hangs on by the
