124 RIDING 



short must to a certain extent strain him, and it is hardly the 

 thing one likes to find out, that, after having taken consider- 

 able pains to get your horse exactly to your liking, he has gone 

 in his hocks. Of course, there are occasions when one is 

 bound to pull up as quickly as possible, perhaps to avoid 

 riding over or into some one who has been unfortunate, but 

 these are not of very frequent occurrence, and it is time enough 

 to practise it when obliged to do so. 



Many young horses have a decided objection to other 

 horses galloping up close behind, or passing them. This 

 happens sometimes from nervousness, and sometimes is nothing 

 more than the natural desire, from high spirits, and a wish to 

 join in the fun, to go as fast as his neighbours. With those 

 that are nervous, the best cure is to get some one to pass you 

 frequently on a quiet horse at a moderate pace, at some little 

 distance off, and gradually decrease the space between the two 

 until your companion passes quite close. The rider of the 

 nervous one should make much of him, which will generally in 

 time induce him to take no notice of passers by. In the other 

 case the only thing the rider has to do is to keep his horse's 

 attention on himself, by moving the snaffle or bridoon lightly 

 across the horse's mouth while the other horse is passing, and 

 keep his head up so as to prevent him kicking at the horse 

 coming up behind him ; but this sort of thing is more often 

 caused by the horse being over-fresh than by anything else, 

 and a little more work will be found of assistance in keeping 

 him steady. 



A worse fault which the young horse sometimes develops 

 is turning sharply round, in most cases making a half rear first, 

 on seeing another animal coming towards him at a fast 

 pace. When this sort of thing occurs, the horse's eyes should 

 be examined, for it may arise from short-sightedness, in which 

 case he will be disposed to do the same thing on coming 

 unexpectedly on to anything else, such as a piece of white 

 paper, a pool of water, or anything of that sort. If his eyes 

 are found to be all right, and he only turns round thus when 



