How women long ago could possibly ride across country without a third pommel is a mystery to me. Yet we are told they went well. I cannot credit their having been able to ride anything but patent safety horses, for one needs all the strength the third pommel gives to steer an awkward horse along, though of course one's knee should hang below it in the ordinary way of riding. I believe the great tip in women's riding is to ride off the right leg. So much strength is to be got out of pressing the leg against the saddle flap, and it is noticeable what a much prettier seat those have who rise in trotting off the right thigh than others who laboriously rise out of the stirrup. [Illustration: _LANCER, IRISH HORSE._ (_Property of Mrs. Burn._)] Another thing that often strikes me is how few women carry their stirrup foot in the right place. The proper position for the left foot is to hang in a straight line from the knee, with the foot easy in the stirrup, not pressed against it, but home in it _I_ think, though I see many who only touch it with their toes. It is pitiful to ride behind a woman and see the sole of her foot sticking up at the back, yet some find they get their grip in this way, so they tell me, the grip which _should_ come from the pressure I mentioned before, of the right leg against the saddle flap. A well-known woman to hounds was once pointed out to me as a wonder on a horse. So she was, very good; _but_ if she had ridden with a spur she would have been killed long before, for she rode with her toe out and her heel pressed against her horse's ribs. Why many women have not broken their necks before now I do not know. Those who ride with a loose rein, for instance. I once saw a gallant girl galloping hard across a heavy plough, with her reins hung over one finger. It may have been smart, it certainly was brave, but the sad thing was it showed her ignorance so patently that one pitied her from the heart, and her horse still more, for had he not been one of the cleverest in England he must have tumbled her head over heels. Women out hunting should take their chance with the rest, and never trade on the chivalry of the opposite sex, for this is what makes them unpopular in the hunting field. If they are not brave enough to take their own place at a fence, they must be content to wait their turn at the gap or gate. If they are wise they will keep on the very _outside_ of the crowd in a gateway, as they will pass through quicker like that than if they go straight into the mass of struggling humanity, which will probably jam them out the more they try to get in front. If you hunt, be ready to help other people, "and do unto all men as you would they should do unto you."