Having halted the horse in the centre of the school, his head should be held by a steady groom. The lady should then pass the reins from the right hand to the left, and quietly lift her skirt with the right hand until she can easily disengage her right knee from the upper pommels. At the same moment her left foot should be disengaged by the assistant from the stirrup, and her skirt from the near-side pommel or third crutch. The lady should then drop the reins on the horse's neck, and having disengaged her right knee, turn quietly to the left in her saddle, and face the assistant. She should then with both hands take up the slack of her habit until her feet are quite clear of it, otherwise, on alighting she is liable to trip and fall, possibly right into the arms of the assistant, which is not, by any means, according to rule. Having gathered up the skirt, the lady should then carry her hands forward about eight or ten inches from her knees, and rest both her hands firmly on those of the assistant, who should raise them up well for the purpose. It remains only then for the lady to glide smoothly down from the saddle, and, slightly supported by the assistant, she will alight easily and gracefully on _terra firma_. Some riding masters have a fashion of taking a lady off her horse by placing both hands on her waist and allowing her to throw her weight forward upon them. Such a practice is _outré_, inelegant, and unsafe, because the lady is likely enough to throw more weight forward than the master anticipated, in which case both may come to the ground, to the great discomfiture of the fair equestrian. CHAPTER VII. THE TROTTING LESSON. This, once thoroughly mastered, gives the pupil confidence and security on her horse, and is the great inductive step by which she learns the value of balance. Some years ago it was considered that if a lady could sit her horse gracefully at a walk, and securely at a canter, she had accomplished all that was correct or necessary in female equitation. Trotting was altogether ignored, for the simple reason that ladies found it extremely difficult to do, and impossible to find anybody who could help them out of their difficulty by teaching them the right way. In those days most of the riding masters were men who had been instructors in the cavalry. In that arm of the service, trotting according to regulation is quite a different thing to the easy rise and fall seat practised by civilians on horseback. It is a necessity in cavalry, in order to preserve the dressing in line, that a man should sit down in his saddle at a trot, and allow the horse to shake him fair up and down in it. If the rising seat were allowed, it would be impossible to preserve anything like dressing. This shake-up, or "bumping" seat, however, as men out of the army call it, is by no means so distressing as some people imagine, unless the horse is unusually rough in his action.