Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-12-29
THE RIDING SCHOOLS.
WHERE SOCIETY SPENDS PART OF ITS TIME WHEN SUMMER IS OVER.

Careful Training of the Horses-MountinE
 from the Ground - Nervous Women.
 Habits Fitted While on the Horse-Rid-
 ing to Music.
 The base of all riding lessons for beginners is the safety and careful training of the | horses. Only horse of strong will power, wide intelligence and disciplined nerves can bear with equanimity the succession of sur | prises sweet girl manages to arrange for him when she mounts for the first time. The | first mounting is from a block, and rider | has only to sit down with little spring to be in her place, but there are something like | hundred ways a girl manages to take that little spring and take it exactly wrong before she is ill the saddle. Then it takes an artist | to arrange girls skirts and two grooms to hold the horse while it is done When she doesn't forget to unlock the little loop that holds her dress in the back she sits down squarely on the fullness that should go over the pommel, or gets so helplessly wound up in the skirts that no one but the fifteen pug gle man can ever get her out alive. Her sad dle is never exactly right, her stirrup either too long or too short, and she fidgets and fusses and nestles and giggles and gets pink in her cheeks and lot of imprecation and profanity in the heart of the groom be- fore she is finally satisfied and rides into the AAhSs Ol1IJ IO SOAllC D6CA again HI uluo CASeS out of ten for another horse or saddle or something.
 Mounting from the ground is yet more difficult feat, and usually the first few trials end in disaster. One hand on the saddle. the other on the shoulder of the master his arm about her waist, her foot in his hand, and then count one, two, three, and she springs only to land where she least expects, while the horse quivers and shivers in patient sub- mission and bears it. The favorite mode of riding is after the English style, and the master rides round and round with the pupil correcting, criticising her position, and sug- gesting such ideas as she may find beneficial Suddenly, without warning, he chirrups to her horse, and away they go, his hand under meath her elbow to teach how and when to rise from the saddle as the horse bounds Faster and faster they fly, and winter and winter grows the girls face through the nameless fear that will come and must be dispelled by heroic treatment.
 A naturally graceful woman who is not afraid of a horse and understands how to manage one, can learn to ride we'll in very few lessons but a timid, nervous woman re- quire considerable practice to accustom her self to the to her terrifying motion of the powerful animal she rides.
 "1 practiced months and months," said pretty young girl in gray striped habit, ''to learn to rise in the saddle according to the masters teaching, but just couldn't do it at | all, and l was lame all over, until one day papa said: Why, just sit still and let the l horse throw you,' and in ten minutes I had it and have never had any trouble since"
 All this time that the young riders had been Hopping and tossing and jerking around in the rink, tall, vigorous young woman had been drawing on her gloves, and a pink | chanla2 <yirl in ho letter, waiting for their horses and scolding because some one whom they called Bert couldn't come and ride with them, so they could go out in the park, and when the horses finally came, two hanfsame, white faced, slender necked beauties, they flew down the steps, one foot in the hand of the groom, a spring, and they were in the sad dles, every fold of their habits falling into exactly the correct and proper place with no
 idgeting, and into the rink they dashed on the prancing, dancing horses, flying round and round and across the circle, striking ter TOT to the hearts of their timid sisters while the fresh, soft color sprang to the riders cheeks and the pretty brightness to their eyes with the swift exercise.
 "How is it that you seem to have much less trouble with your dress in mounting than the others?' asked an inquisitive matron as the girls came panting up the stairs.
 "Oh, l don't know, unless it is because they were fitted on real live horse up here at the stable. A great many of the ladies insist on their tailors coming to the stables to fit the dresses now. A wooden charger isn't like a live horse to mount, you know"
 When the beginners lessons are ended for the day comes the glorious dashing music ride by all the school together. Suddenly a
 crash of music, trampling of hoofs, toss ing of silky manes, and glossy curving necks,
 and sixty horses, all saddled and bridled
 dash out into the rink, and half as many
 women are trying to mount the eager, paw
 ing, Quivering steeds, and twice as many
 men are helping them to the best of their
 poor skill The ladies fuss and twist and
 wrestle, stirrups shortened or heightened
 girths are frightened, the music crashes on,
 the pretty horses stand impatiently, with
 quivering ears and dilated nostrils The
 Queenly beauty goes out to mount, but pouts
 in the prettiest imaginable way as she is led along the block, but smiles with lips and
 eyes as a fair haired Adonis, anticipating
 her wish to mount from the ground, springs
 down from the block and holds up his arms invitingly to her. Twenty horses are crowded together in little space cavortine
 and paving in impatience and excitement
 but down among their trampling hoofs sht flies fearlessly, and with quick. light spring , she is beaming down into his face as he fit her foot into the stirrup and tightens hel saddle girth, then filings himself on horse and round and round the big rink they al revolve in steady measured pace to the quick throbbing music.
 Sweet girls ride into the rim g alone all feal y lessly, but hardly are they inside the gat before some mounted knight with upliftet hat joins them, and two and two they dizzil, wheel, now to the right, ROW to the left ! , divide into two circles, meet and come III I the center four abreast, wheel again into tn ! circles of four, meet and march up eigh
 abreast, separate once more, wheel, meet
 and sixteen horses heads come tossing up il line, as unlike in expression as the sixteel 7 bright faces above them, and round the, 3 wheel again in pairs.
 . Then they all form in one straight line while the music beats the time, dash for 7 ward, the whole seventy of them, in 8 salut 3 to the leader, and the lesson is over, only 3 few of the bravest of the ladies remaining t 1 ride for the rings, and only two braving tn , hurdles.-New York Sun.