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The plaint of the gravel travelled slowly all round the drive. Between the lamps of the charitable gateway the slow cortege reappeared, lighted up for a moment, the short, thick man limping busily, with the horse’s head held aloft in his fist, the lank animal walking in stiff and forlorn dignity, the dark, low box on wheels rolling behind comically with an air of waddling. They turned to the left.
To mount, a man should place his left shoulder to his horse’s left shoulder, so as to look to the horse’s rear; take your whip, reins, and the mane in the left hand, with the right hand take the lower part of the stirrup-leather between the fore-finger and thumb, the little finger on the upper part of the stirrup-iron; take a hop forward facing the saddle and turning your toe to the horse’s front without touching his side, take the cantle with the right hand and up.
“Now, grab his tail,” commanded Calhoun, and he watched Latham until he had taken a firm hold of the horse’s tail and was in water beyond his depth. “For the Lord’s sake, keep his head above water,” shouted Latham from behind, as the horse made a fearful plunge. For the next few minutes Calhoun had enough to do without looking to see what had become of Latham.
The excuse is, to open gates; but if you put your horse’s side against a gate, it is better opened by the hand, but keep your leg from your horse’s side. The fingering of the reins should not be impeded even by thick gloves; as thick muffettees as you like, but no gloves thicker than kid.
On the occasion we are describing, the pigs were luxuriating on cabbage-stalks, and the shuttlecocks fluttered from the little deal battledores, and the children played in the road; and women, with a basket in one hand, and the street-door key in the other, would cross just before the horse’s head, until Mr.
A spurred boot under the ragged skirt pierced the horse’s flank; the hand that came from the apple basket fired the cocked pistol almost before the sentry knew it, and the picket fell dead. The reserve stood as if stupefied. That night I gave Quantrell, for Col. Hays, a plan showing the condition of affairs in Independence. The morning of the 11th the attack was made and Col.
I wished to have let my party behind know where I was, but I recollected that they would be able to trace me by the prints of my horse’s hoofs in the sand, and having to do with Asiatics, I felt the danger of the slightest movement which might be looked upon as a sign of irresolution.
If, by clasping his legs, he prevents this, his horse will be overbalanced to the left when turning to the right. It is bad, in turning to the right, to run into the contrary extreme to the one-handed system, and, slackening the left rein, to haul the horse’s head round with the right rein only.
On such occasions I draw in my horse’s rein, and, seated in the saddle, endeavour to associate with the picture before me—in itself a picture of romance—whatever of the wild and wonderful I have read of in books, or have seen with my own eyes in connection with forges. I believe the life of any blacksmith, especially a rural one, would afford materials for a highly poetical history.
The common error is the reverse of all this. The common error is to pull the horse’s head towards the object of his fear, and when he is facing it, to begin with whip and spur. Expecting to be crammed under the carriage-wheel, the horse probably rears or runs back into a ditch, or at least becomes more nervous and more riotous at every carriage that he meets.
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