Having had your little warning against clucking, perhaps you will now sympathize with the indignant Englishwoman who, having been almost unseated by a similar mischance, responded, when the clucking cause thereof rode up to say that he was sorry that her horse should behave so:  “It wasn’t the horse that was in fault, sir; it was a donkey.”  But now, try a round or two more of trotting, then guide your horse carefully about the ring two or three times, bring him up to the mounting-stand, dismount, and go to the dressing-room.  You are rather warm, but not in the least tired, and you have had “such a good time,” as you enthusiastically explain to everybody who will listen to you, but as there is much merry chatter going on from behind screens, and as it is all to the same effect, nobody pays much attention, and if you were cross and complaining, everybody would laugh at you.  A riding-school is a place from which every woman issues better contented than she entered, and there is no sympathy for grumblers.

Remember to be careful about your wraps, and that you may be able to ride better next time, practice these exercises at home:  Place your knees together and heels together, adjust your shoulders, hands, and arms as if you were in the saddle, and sit down as far as possible, while keeping the legs vertical from the knee down.  Rise, counting “One,” sink again, rise once more at “Two,” and continue through three measures, common time.  Rest a minute and repeat until you are a little weary.  Nothing is gained by doing too much work, but if you do just enough of this between lessons, you cannot possibly grow stiff.  When you can do it fairly well, try to do it first on one foot and then on the other, and then bring your right foot in front of your left knee, and, standing on your left foot, assume, as nearly as possibly, the proper position for the saddle, and try to rise in time.  You will not find it very difficult, and you will be compelled to keep your heel down while doing it, especially if you put a block about an inch thick under your left tow.  You may try doing it while sitting sidewise in a chair, if it be difficult for you to poise yourself on one foot, but a girl who cannot stand thus for some time, long enough to lace her riding boot, for instance, is much too weak for her own good.

Take all your spare minutes for this work, Esmeralda.  Bob up and down in all the secluded corners of the house; try to feel the motion in the horse-cars—­it will not need much effort in many of them.  And if you want to be comfortable in a herdic, sit sidewise and pretend that the seat is a horse.  This is Mr. Hurlburt’s rule for riding in an Irish “outside car.”  In short, while taking your first riding-lessons, walk, sit, and think to the tune of

  “One, two, three, four! 
    Near the wall,
  Make him trot;
    You cannot fall!”

IV.

The Horse does not attempt to fly;
He knows his powers, and so should I.
Spurgeon.