8o ORDINARY RIDING. 



round his neck and bring my head to the right ; consequently,, 

 the horse's head was against my left shoulder. I subsequently 

 saw the inconvenience of this position, in which one is too far 

 forward on his neck when he brings his fore legs down on the 

 ground. And as we are then obliged to give him his head, 

 he is at liberty to send us over his ears by a strong kick with 

 both hind legs, or to give us a blow in the face or chest with 

 his head, in the event of his throwing it up. 



From a very long experience I have found the following to 

 be the best means of avoiding accidents which may happen 

 from rearing. Separate the reins — as one should always do, 

 when a horse rears — and take hold of the mane in the left 

 hand at about the middle of the neck. When the horse 

 stands up on end, bring the body well forward by the left 

 arm ; and when he comes down again, push the body back 

 into its place by quickly straightening that arm. If the 

 animal makes another attempt at rearing, again bring the 

 body forward, again push it back ; and so on, until he ceases to 

 rear. From the moment we stop trying to make the horse go 

 forward, we are able by this means to put up with the horse's 

 rearing for any length of time without difficulty. If he kicks, 

 our straightened-out arm will act as a prop, and if he springs 

 to the right about or left about, it will furnish a support which 

 will keep us in the saddle, and will enable us to avoid hanging 

 on to the reins, which is the usual cause of accidents. I feel 

 certain that the foregoing position is the best for keeping the 

 rider in the saddle, when a horse rears, or, rather, it is the 

 least bad, because the position of the rider is never good in 

 such a case. 



I havej^had good luck with regard to rearing ; for although 

 I have ridden a great number of rearers, none of them has 

 upset me. 



I do not believe that horses voluntarily throw themselves 

 backwards. As far as I can see, they simply lose their 



