Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1897-02-06
REFLECTIONS ON RIDING.
The Bicycle aud the Horse and the Differ
enoe Between Them.

1he Bicycle ana the Horse anu Cn0 DlHoEs
enoe Between Them.
The writing of this paper has been in
spired by debate recently held at the lit
erary society of my native town on the
question, Resolved, That the bicycle is
nobler animal than the horse" In order
to speak for the negative with proper au-
thority, have spent some weeks in COM
pletely addicting myself to the use Of the
horse. l find that the difference between
the horse and the bicycle is greater than
had supposed.
The horse is entirely covered with hair.
The bicycle is not entirely covered with
hair, except the 1889 model they are using
in Jayville.
In riding horse the performer finds
that the pedals in which he puts his feet
will not allow of good circular stroke.
He will observe, however, that there is q
saddle in which--especially while the
horse is trotting-he is expected to seat
himself from time to time But it is sim
pier to ride standing up with the feet in
the pedals.
There are no handles to horse, but the
1896 model has string to eacn side of its
face for turning its head when there is
any bnlng you WanU IL TO see.
Coasting on good horse is superb, but
should be under control have known a
horse to suddenly begin to coast with me
about two miles from home, coast down
the main street of my native town at q
terrific rate, and finally coast through
platoon of the Salvation Army into its liv-
cry stable.
cannot honestly deny that it takes a
good deal of physical courage to ride a
horse. This, however, have. get it at
about 40 cents flask, and take it as re-
quired.
l find that in riding horse up the long
street of country town it is not well to
proceed at a trot. 1t excites unkindly
comment 1t is better to let the horse
walk the whole distance. This may be
made to seem natural by turning half
round in the saddle, with the hand on tho
horses back, and gazing intently about
two miles up the road. 1t then appears
that you are the first in of about II men.
Since learning to ride 1 have taken to
noticing the things that people do on horse
back in books. Some of these can man
age, but most of them are entirely beyond
me. Here, for instance, is form of eques-
recognize and for which have only de-
spairing admiration:
with hasty gesture Of farewell the
rider set spurs to his horse and disappeared
in cloud of dust. !"
With a little practice in the matter of
adjustment, think 1 could set spurs to
any size of horse, but could never disap-
pear in a cloud of dust-at least not with
any guarantee of remaining disappeared
when the dust cleared away.
Here however, is one that 1 certainly
can do:
1.-THE bride rein dropped from Lord
Everard's listless hand, and with his head
bowed upon his bosom he suffered his
horse to move at foots pace up the SOM
Der avenue. Deep in thought he needed
not the movement Of the steed which bore
him"
That is, he looked as If he didn't but in
my case Lord Everard has his eye on the
steed pretty closely just the same.
This next am doubtful about:
TO horse, to horsep cried the knight,
and leaped into the saddle"
think could manage it If it read:
SOTO horsep cried the knight and
snatching stepladder from the hands OF
his trusty attendant, he climbed into the
saddle"
As concluding remark may mention
that my experience of riding has thrown a
very interesting side light upon rather
puzzling point in history 1t is recorded
of the famous Henry II that he was 'al-
most constantly in the saddle, and of SO
restless disposition that he never sat
down, even at meals" had hitherto
been unable to understand Henry's idea
about his meals, but think I can appre-
oiate 1t now Stephen Leacock in Truth.