HANDS AND SEAT 137 



head up and poke his nose out, immediately clutch the reins 

 shorter and ram his legs or spurs into the animal's sides, but 

 will drop his hand for a moment, and then, when the horse 

 drops his nose, as he is almost certain to do, will quietly shorten 

 his reins a little, and close the legs so as to endeavour to keep 

 him there. 



A man who has not good hands or seat almost invariably 

 does exactly the opposite. He scrambles his reins up short, and 

 holds on to his horse's head, which has the effect of making the 

 horse poke his nose out still more. The rider very likely loses 

 what little control he had, and the horse goes on increasing his 

 pace until he thinks he has had enough of it, and stops of his 

 own accord, when the rider forthwith gives out that he has 

 been run away with, whereas in reality he made the horse run 

 away, or at all events encouraged him to do so, that is, if this 

 sort of thing can be called running away. Again, the man 

 without hands and seat would, as a rule, if his horse were in- 

 clined to get his head down, shorten his reins and pull hard at 

 his head to try to get it up again; but here the man who has 

 good hands and seat would first close his legs strongly, so as 

 to force the horse's head away, and quietly raise his hand, 

 working the snaffle or bridoon lightly across the mouth. 



Many more comparisons might be drawn between good and 

 bad hands and seats, but perhaps these few are sufficient ; and, 

 to sum up, the best seat and hands are those in possession of 

 the man with a good temper, between whom and his horse 

 there is, so to speak, constant communication. He has always 

 a feeling on his horse's mouth, but never holds on by it ; he 

 can tell by the feel of his horse if he contemplates doing any- 

 thing out of the common, and can nearly always forestall him, 

 without the horse seeming to be aware of it. He is always 

 carried well and pleasantly. If his horse should by any means 

 be startled and take a jump to one side or the other, he goes 

 with him and does not pull his mouth about ; in fact, it would 

 appear that horse and man were one machine, possessed of one 

 mind between them. If many people who keep horses it 



