TRAINING THE YOUNG HORSE 71 



exercise. He should then be brought up into the centre of 

 the circle he is going to be longed on, and have the cavesson put 

 on. The cavesson is placed on the horse's head in the same 

 manner as the head collar, but the centre and bottom straps of 

 it should be passed beneath the cheek-pieces of the bridle 

 before being buckled. In fitting the cavesson, it should be 

 put about four inches above the nostrils if higher it partly 

 loses its power, and if lower the breathing is likely to be affected 

 by it and, without actually hurting or irritating the horse more 

 than necessary, must be put on tight enough so that there is no 

 danger of pulling it over his ears in the event of his hanging 

 back. The top of the three straps acts as a throat-lash, and 

 with well bred horses which have small heads requires to be 

 buckled moderately tight so as to guard against the before 

 mentioned evil ; the middle one should be buckled the tightest 

 of the three, so that it will keep it straight on the horse's head. 

 Supposing you are longeing a horse to the left and he is at all 

 inclined to pull away from you, if the centre strap should be 

 too slack the cheek-piece on the opposite side would work into 

 the horse's off eye ; the bottom strap of the three helps to keep 

 the cavesson in its place, but should not be too tight, as it acts 

 partly in the same manner as a curb. In putting the cavesson 

 on the horse's head, care should be taken not to make it more 

 uncomfortable than is necessary the mane and forelock should 

 be pulled out smoothly from under it, and the brow-band of it 

 and of the snaffle bridle, which is underneath, should be well 

 below the ears. The best kind of snaffle is an ordinary smooth 

 mouthing snaffle with keys ; the objection to a great many 

 snaffles one sees in use is that they are not long enough in the 

 mouthpiece. The correct length is about eight inches, so as to 

 allow of a good long draw across the bars of the mouth when 

 riding ; besides, when longeing, the snaffle is not so liable to get 

 fixed under the nosepiece of the cavesson at the sides if it is 

 of sufficient length. Such a fixture often occurs if it is too 

 short. Of course a shorter one can be made to do for well 

 bred horses having small mouths, but this is about the length 



