Now, Esmeralda, keep your mind—­No, your saddle is not turning; it is well girthed.  You feel as if it were?  Pray, how do you know how you would feel if a saddle were to turn?  Did you ever try it?  And your saddle is not too large!  Neither is it too small!  And there is nothing at all the matter with your horse!  Now, Esmeralda, keep your mind—­No, that other girl is not going to ride you down.  Her horse would not allow her, if she endeavored to do so.  The trouble is that she does not guide her horse, but is worrying herself about staying on his back, when she should be thinking about making him turn sharp corners and go straight forward.  Regard her as a warning, Esmeralda, and keep your mind—­ What is the matter with the reins?  Apparently they are oiled, for they have slipped from under your thumbs, and your horse is wandering along with drooping head, looking as if training to play the part of the dead warrior’s charger at a military funeral.

Shorten your reins now, carefully!  Not quite so much, or your horse will think that you intend to begin to trot, and do not lean backward, or he will fancy that you wish him to back or stop.  The poor thing has to guess at what a pupil wishes, and no wonder that he sometimes mistakes.

But, Esmeralda, keep your mind on those thumbs and hold them close to your forefingers.  Driving will give no idea of the slipperiness of leather, but after your first riding lesson you will wonder why it is not used to floor roller-skating rinks.  But remember that your reins are for your horse’s support, not for yours; they are the telegraph wires along which you send dispatches to him, not parallel bars upon which your weight is to depend.  Hitherto, you have not ridden an inch.  Your horse has strolled about, and you have not dropped from his back, and that is not riding, but now you shall begin.

In a large ring, pupils are required to keep to the wall when walking, as this gives the horse a certain guide, but in small rings the rule is to keep to the wall when trotting, so as to improve every foot of pace, and to walk about six feet from the wall, not in a circle, but describing a rectangle.  New pupils are always taught to turn to the right, and to make all their movements in that direction.  Hold your thumbs firmly in place, and draw your right hand a very little upward and inward, touching your whip lightly to the horse’s right side, and turning your face and leaning your body slightly to the right.

The instant that the corner is turned, drop your hand, keeping the thumb in place, square your shoulders, look straight between your horse’s ears, and then allow your eyes to range upward as far as possible without losing sight of him altogether.  No matter what is going on about you.  Very likely, the criticizing mamma on the mounting-stand is scolding sharply about noting.  Possibly, a dear little boy is fairly flying about the ring on a pony that seems to have cantered out of a fairy tale, and a marvelously graceful girl, whom you envy with your whole soul, is doing pirouettes in the centre of the ring.