[RICHARDSON, Mervyn].

Horsemanship; or, the art of riding and managing a horse, adapted for the guidance of ladies and gentlemen on the road and in the field: with instructions for breaking in colts and young horses ...

London, Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1853. 8vo, pp. xii, 140; with 5 steel-engraved plates and several illustrations within text; leaves browned, with some soiling, preliminary leaves with slight dampmark in the gutter, guarded and resewn; recent cloth-backed boards, paper spine label. First edition; scarce. ‘Hard riding, bold riding and rough riding, were the common systems of equitation that prevailed; but the real science was scarcely known in England … The cause of our having so many badly trained and ill-conditioned horses is the lack of knowledge of the science of horsemanship and horsebreaking among the generality of horsebreakers themselves’ (p. viii). Captain Richardson, late of the Fourth Light Dragoons, proceeds to give sound and practical advice on riding, some of which ‘had a remarkably modern ring’ (Grimshaw). ‘The proper length of the stirrup leathers is determined by the sole of the stirrup iron touching the lower edge of the ankle-bone when the foot hangs loose … The balls of the feet must bear lightly upon the stirrups, and the legs must not cling with tenacity to the sides of the horse. The rider must learn to find his balance, so that he may be perfectly independent of the extraneous support, derivable from the stirrups and the bridle … A martingale is a foreign, dead, and non-elastic medium, interfering with and neuralizing the fine feeling that ought ever to subsist between the hand of the rider and the mouth of the horse’ (ibid.)Grimshaw 57; Huth, p. 196; not in Mellon; not in OCLC; RLIN locates 1 copy only (New York Public Library).

• GBP 450.00 > other currencies
• ordernr.: H850

• bookseller: Bernard Quaritch Ltd. (GREAT BRITAIN)