When the lady was gone the master observed, "Most extraordinary thing! I can't get this horse to do wrong, and Miss A. cannot get him to go a yard." "Did you ever ride him in a side-saddle?" I inquired. "I? Certainly not," was the answer; "no man can break a horse in a side-saddle" (this was true enough as regards the early stages), "and," continued the professor, "I can't ride a bit in a side-saddle." The latter observation settled the matter in my mind; for it has been always clear to me that, if a man cannot acquire a true and firm seat himself on a side-saddle, it is impossible he can teach a woman to ride. He may teach her to sit square and upright on an old horse that has been carrying women for years, but "going about" on such an animal is not riding--my idea of which, as regards a lady, is, that on a horse still full of courage and action (though not too fresh or short of work) the rider should be able, by the application of aids sound in theory and practice, to render the horse thoroughly obedient to her will. This is riding. Cantering along upon an old tittuping hack is merely taking horse exercise in a mild form. As regards a man riding in a side-saddle, I may say that some years ago a young friend of mine, now deceased--than whom there never was a better man with hounds--hunted in a side-saddle for three or four seasons before his death. He had injured his right foot so badly in a fall as to necessitate amputation at the instep, and he preferred the side-saddle seat to the awkward and disagreeable feeling occasioned by trusting to a cork foot in the off-side stirrup. Some of your readers may probably remember the dashing youngster I allude to, who was always to be seen going true and straight in the front rank, when he hunted eighteen years ago with the Royal Buckhounds. I can safely say that the horses he rode in his side-saddle were the perfection of ladies' hunters, and that he was one of the best instructors of female equitation I ever met. I repeat, then, that before a horse can be pronounced fit to carry a lady he should have been ridden in a side-saddle for some time by a man. Riding in this way, the breaker's first object should be to make the horse walk truly and fairly up to his bridle, without hurrying or shuffling in his pace, than which nothing is more unpleasant to a lady, especially if she is engaged in conversation with a companion. Of course it is indispensable that a horse should be a good natural walker, but at the same time the animal should be carefully taught to work right up to his bit in this most important pace; action in the others can then be easily developed. In the trot the breaker should gradually accustom the animal to go with the least possible amount of support from the leg. This he will easily do by using a very long whip, and, when he feels the horse hanging back from his work, touching him lightly on the hind quarters instead of closing the leg.