We will now describe what the rider should do when he has received his horse and is going to mount, if he is to make the best of himself and his horse in riding.First, then, he must hold the lead-rope fastened to the chin-strap or the nose-band1 ready in the left hand, and so loose as not to jerk the horse whether he means to mount by holding on to the mane near the ears or to spring up with the help of the spear. With his right hand let him take hold of the reins by the withers along with the mane, so that he may not jerk the horse's mouth with the bit in any way as he mounts.
1 cavesson. See Anderson in J.H.S. 80.3-6.
Xenophon. Xenophon in Seven Volumes, 7. E. C. Marchant, G. W. Bowersock, tr. Constitution of the Athenians. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA; William Heinemann, Ltd., London. 1925.
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