Riders of many lands, by Theodore Ayrault Dodge ...

Front matter

I

Storage

Class Book

Preface

The following pages, which ought, perhaps, to be entitled " A Globe-trotter's Pot au Feu of Horse-flesh, with a Seasoning of Chestnuts," recall to the author's mind the story of the old Yankee who, in default of other books, read Webster's Unabridged through from beginning to end, and then remarked that it was mighty interesting reading, especially the pictures, but it didn't seem to have much plot. May the author ask for the gentle reader's patience if he finds the same lack of sequence between these covers ?

And yet there is a motif running through them, which the good American horse-lover will not find it hard to follow.

Brookline, Mass., 1893.

ILLUSTEATIONS

PAGE

AMERICAN POLO-PLAYERS Frontispiece

"a country bumpkin" 2

panathenaic rider 3

OLD GALLIC SADDr,E . 8

AN OLD-TIME NORTHERN PLAINS INDIAN — THE COUP .15

STATUE OF ALEXANDER BY LYSIPPCJS 19

A WHITE TRAPPER 81

AN INDIAN TRAPPER 37

THE TRAYAUX PONY 47

MODERN COMANCHE 5o

AN APACHE INDIAN 57

UNITED STATES CAYALRYMAN 67

INDIAN SCOUT WITH LOST TROOP-HORSE 91

CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE 95

COWBOY LIGHTING THE RANGE FIRE 103

THE INDIAN METHOD OF BREAKING A PONY 113

A MEXICAN VAQCERO 125

GENTLEMAN RIDER ON THE PASEO DE LA REFORM A 133

A SOUTHERN RIDER 145

A HUNTING MAN 151

GENTLEMAN RIDER IN CENTRAL PARK 161

COUNTRY GENTLEMAN'S TYPICAL SADDLE-HORSE 167

JOCKEYS . • 173

THE SPANISH WALK 181

CAPRIOLE 183

CROUPADE 185

HOW TO DO IT 202

HOW NOT TO DO IT 209

FRENCH ALGERIAN CAVALRYMAN ON BARB 221

CAVALRY LEAPING-DRILL IN ALGERIA 225

A SPAHI AND HIS BARB, ALGERIA 231 viii ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

REMOUNT BARB FOR ALGERIAN CAVALRY 235

SPAHI RACKING ALONG THE ROAD 239

SPAHI, EQUIPPED FOR "FANTASIYA," MAKING HIS HORSE REAR 242

COUNTRYMAN ON AN ASS 251

BICHARI CAMEL-RIDERS, UPPER EGYPT 265

READY FOR THE "FANTASIYA " . .- . 267

"FANTASIYA" RIDERS, ALGERIA . 271

TUNISIAN HAT 274

MY FRIEND THE CALIPH 281

TUNISIAN WITH TWO-YEAR-OLD BARB 287

A TUNISIAN SHEIK 290

ARABIAN POLO-PONIES, CAIRO 293

ENGLISH OFFICER ON ARABIAN, CAIRO 295

SAIS HOLDING ARABIAN, CAIRO 299

EGYPTIAN WOMAN'S STYLE 315

TIRED DONKEY-BOY 321

WELL-BRED SADDLE-ASS, CAIRO 329

CAMEL-RIDERS ON THE DESERT 335

AN ARABIAN SIRE 341

BEDOUIN ESCORT FROM JERUSALEM TO JERICHO 349

RICH BEDOUIN SHEIK 363

SYRIAN WOMAN ON AN ASS 367

POOR BEDOUINS OF MOAB 371

PALANQUIN CAMEL 375

TWO-CAMEL PALANQUIN 379

A HUNGARIAN THOROUGH-BRED 387

ONE OF THE SULTAN 'S RIDING-HORSES 391

AN OLD ARABIAN FROM THE SULTAN'S STABLE 397

OLD ARAB OF THE SULTAN'S STABLE ON ARABIAN . . 400

MODERN GREEK COSTUME 405

COSSACK OP THE GUARD — FIELD TRIM 413

KING OF NEPAUL 429

MANIPURI POLO-PONY . . 437

CHINESE MANDARIN 453

MONGOLIAN HORSEMAN 473

HAWAIIAN BULLOCK-RIDERS 479

HAWAIIAN AMAZON RIDER 483

We Americans are a many-sided people, and our equestrianism partakes of our many-sidedness. The greatest variety of riders which any one people has produced has thriven on the continent of North America. Going back to include the days, still in the memory of old men living, when the Indians who dwelt farthest from civilization were armed with bow and arrow, tomahawk and lance, and rode without a saddle, we can count within the boundaries of the Union almost every type of rider, from those who subdued the steed in the era which produced the frieze of the Parthenon to the Sunday rider of the present year of grace. As a matter of pure skill, as well as artistically speaking, the first-named, or bareback rider, stands in every age at the head of all equestrians, while the latter is a proper object-lesson of what to avoid ; but, inasmuch as for practical work the saddle gives a distinct superiority in many ways, we can scarcely compare the bareback horseman with the modern rider, be he good, bad, or indifferent.

"When we speak of bareback riding, we do not refer to the country bumpkin, a species indigenous to every soil, and most aptly illustrated in Rosa Bonheur's " Horse Fair." Especially where horses trot is this bareback horror at his worst. Leaning back, holding for dear life to the reins which give him a good half of his security, with elbows in air, or marking time to the horse's steps, and with a general appearance of a set purpose to contend with the

A COUNTRY BUMPKIN impossible to the end of the chapter, this rider is the very pattern of how not to do it. Take the rider on the big gray in the " Horse Fair," and compare him with one of the riders in the Panathenaic procession ! How can two men doing the same thing be so at odds ? And yet each would cast a slur at the other's horsemanship.

Qui s> excuse S* accuse, and I do not wish to offer an apology for what, in the following pages, may often on the surface appear to be dogmatic. I hope that my brothers in horsemanship will absolve me from narrowness — in all things easily the first of vices. I have put a girdle round the earth ; I have ridden with all kinds and conditions of men, from Mexican vaquero to Arab sheik ; I have thrown my leg across every species of mount, from a bronco to a

ARTISTIC RIDING 3

bridle-bullock; I have discussed horse -lore in the great maneges of Europe and on the Syrian desert, and I equally love to ride my pet horse and my hobby. You may disagree with me, my brother rider, but let us argue together. I will say my say now, and then you shall have your turn. I shall expect to learn much from you.

~Ko intelligent horseman ever claims for his own method the a and ay of equitation. It is an axiom among all men who are not hide-bound by prejudice that the method of riding, and the bit and saddle which are best adapted to the animal to be ridden, to the needs of the work to be done, and to the climate, will, barring poverty of resources, be the ones to grow into use among all peoples and every class. This fact is well illustrated by the two almost

PANATHENAIC RIDER

4 DIFFERENT STYLES

extreme seats of the cowboy and the fox -hunter. The cowboy has to be astride his ponies from a dozen hours upwards every day, ropes steers, or drags out mired cows ; has to stick to his saddle under the most abnormal conditions, and must if need be have both his hands at liberty. He rides with a short tree, horn pommel, and high cantle. He laughs at any other rig. The fox-hunter has nothing to do but to keep his seat ; he has no occupation for his hands except by the play of the bits to get the very best performance out of his horse — a delicate enough operation by-the-bye, and not to be quickly acquired — and needs a saddle on which he can not only sit safely and comfortably over difficult obstacles, but which is convenient to fall out of if a horse comes down, and will prove the least dangerous should his horse come atop of him. He rides the flattest thing known except a pad. The very best authority obtainable — those men, to wit, who have done duty as cowboys, and have ridden to hounds as well (and many of us know from personal friendship that a man may be equally distinguished on the ranch, with the Meadow Brooks, and in politics and letters, too) — unite in pronouncing each saddle to be as closely adapted to the needs of each rider as it can be made. Long use will extract what is good from every style. Even the Arab, who would laugh to scorn the long stirrups of the cowboy, or the persistent road-trot of the fox-hunter, rides in a fashion which to us seems at first blush inexplicable, but which, when one has long dwelt among them, is found to be by no means ill-adapted to his needs. His entire rig suits the Arabian he rides vastly better than a flat English saddle would do, which latter, indeed, he deems the product of the always more or less insane Frank.

Leaving out the soldier, who is the lineal descendant of the knight in armor, with seat and saddle modified by his

THE BEST RIDER? 5

more modern weapons and equipment, and who is everywhere — barring some national traits — substantially the same, the home of the short seat and long stirrup is the Occident, that of the long seat and short stirrup the Orient ; and these are varied in every locality to suit its own peculiarities, inherited or acquired. There are a few exceptions to this rule, but they only serve to prove it. Midway comes the Englishman, with his numerous civilized imitators, whose seat is a compromise between the long and the short. All other styles approach more or less to these, and each has, among the prejudiced, its uncompromising advocates. But whatever seat may be believed by its partisans to be the best, there are, after all said, so many unsurpassed riders who break every commandment in the civilized decalogue of equitation that we cannot even ask " Who is the best rider ?" but only " What is the best form for the peculiar wants of each of us, or of our climate, roads, and horses ?"