New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-04-08
NETWORK RIDING SCHOOLS
IMPORTED ENGLISH HoRsEMANsHIP.
BEGINNERS AND HOW THEY LEAKS-wHAT IT

NEWCOMERS. IL has brought into more or less
commanding vogue here, with other English tastes,
the English fashion for horseback riding, and has
set hundreds OF softly-bred girls and narrow
chested boys the bracing task OF mastering the
difficulties Of English horsemanship Not that
riding for pleasure Is anything new in American
city or country life Every boy and nearly every
girl who has ever lived in the country, learns at
least to sit in a saddle and TO get on comfortably
with one or two easy gaits like the pace or the
canter. And though driving has always been
more popular in New-York with the smooth
stretches of the Park and the boulcvards TO tempt
it, riding has never been entirely neglected here.
But the horsemanship Of twenty years ago was
uncertain and capricious No fixed school had
established itself, nor had pleasure riding become
an art TO cultivate. To have reduced it to a def
mite method 70 have pushed il to the front In the
academies and on the road not only as an exhila-
rating sport, but as thorough going system OF
daily exercise, to have given it that stamp and
approval Of fashion which alone buoy up victims
in the early stages Of training-all these seem In
no small measure the results Of the growing imita
tiOn here Of London customs The whole theory
Of riding has been changed TO suit the precedents
abroad The easy jog or pace, long the favorlte
American gait for ladies' saddle horses, has gone
out entirely The canter. too, except for special
uses has been frowned out, and new method
has been built up solely on the hard English trot.
Exercise first and pleasure afterward,' is the
catchword of the English school 1t teaches one in
riding TO the greatest number of muscles posi-
BILE, trusting that when the pupil gets them all in
I good trim, he may find some qualification in the
smoothness with which they work. Hence the
cultivation of the trot, the pounding motion of
yUbc oh no liza1 OOIr- he
exertion and alertn6ss The old-fashioned theory
Just the revsrse insisting on the least amount
of effort, choosing gaits like the canter and the
gallon, both leisurely though exhilarating and
ignoring all others. But the canter now is set
aside by the sricter ridng-nasters for ladies and
elderly men only, and boys and girls alike, how
ever delicate or puny. set to making athletes
Of themselves by mastering the laborious trot.
One who knows only the gentle pace OF an
amber on the long sweep Of the gallop has no
idea Of the thorough training of the muscles in
vOlved in the hOrSemanshp now taught in the
riding academies Every part Of the legs and
back has some work to do, and even the arms and
shoulders are affected by the sharp motion of the
| horse and the continued effort to keep balanced
in the saddle. Every movement Of the animal
must be met with some counter movement by the
rider All the passiveness of the old school is
gone. One cannot merely bend his energies to
sticking close to the saddle and let everything else
look out for itself. He must rise from his seat
as the horse rises and fall back the horse falls.
But the rise must not come from the stirrups,
as many bad riders think. II should be made
from the thighs and knees alone process Of lift
ing oneself out of ones boots that brings into
play finally muscles which one can at first find no
..;&L Pafr
trotter it is racking torture for beginner. But
in six months the tonic effects of this hard, driving
exercise come TO the surface. The head is more
erect the body frmer the back stronger the legs
hard and muscular the ankles supple enough for
promising heel-and-tOe walker The lungs, too,
trained and siren gthened and the young horse
man can keep his breath for a hard half-hour's
spin.
IL is one long drill learning to ride the new way
and the beginners lessons if he is not clever and
the master IS will run through winter in the
schools and spring and fall in the Park and on
the road. A master is an expensive luxury. In
doors if be is attached to any particular academy,
he will charge, perhaps, SO a lesson. An hours
ride with him in the Park will cost Sc. He will
hire you a good saddle horse for short trot up
the road for SO. Even when gets trife
proficient and starts out for himself, he has u
pay 81 so for an hours exercise in the academy
ring or 50 for an hours spin out OF doors. Three
lessons a week for the winter or four hours
practice will run up a bill of over S1OO and
the outdoor season is more costly still. The
expenses Of course, Of big uptown academy reach
enormous figures. From fifty to n hundred horses
have TO be stabbed and fed small army of stable
men. groOms and masters to be hired. and every
thing kept up to point Of fashionable eXtrav'
agance. Rents, too, IN the streets near the Park
dam in Siy tb-cf il
leased yearly for about 81 5000. Two other
schools still nearer Fifty-ninth-st, are said to
cost their managers about 81 5000 year.
Just now, as the long indoor season is closing and
all the laggards are getting into practice for open
air riding in April and May, any one Of the big
academies Is a picture of more than ordinary hustle
and animation. From 10 a. m. to 10 p. m. the
tan-bark ring or quadrilateral is empty.
The beginners come early and plod around in
dustriOusly with no one to criticise or guy them
but the grooms and stablemen. Then parties of
school girls arrive, with candy in their mouths and
pockets taking lessons in flock under the watch
full eye of some prim instruCtress, who follows
every movement of the handsome headmaster with
suspicion from her post Of vantage in the spectators
gallery Toward afternoon young drop in,
some in boots and spurs some in leggings, some
in plain trousers with straps, all dangling crops
and trying TO look as unconcerned as possible.
Girls too who ride appear in groups Of twos and
threes, with chaperones looking smart in their
glossy silk hats and freshly kept, trim lifting black
habits The full force Of riding masters is put
on. the ring fills up TIL the caYdlcade all but
forms circle, two or three abreast, the head
master sets the pace, and the procession, now de-
pleted, recruited, walking trotting, galloping,
swings round again and again in its narrow circle
The chsperones sit on the benches crticse and
gossip Their keen eyes take in every slip OF
costume figure or horsemanshp, and under their
we'll aimed glasses life loses every charm for the
young man who finds the force of gravity too weak
20 keep him within three inches of the saddle.
What martyrdom il must be for the young woman
who rides beside him, and whose avoirdupois under
the wear and tear of trotting suggests nothing
else so much the b0bbing OF cork buoy IN an
angry seal
T,asa ara the unconscious huuiOrists of the