122 BITS AND BITTING. 



whilst the intermediate position, combined with the 

 requisite degree of stability, affords a pull in the de- 

 sired direction, and, coupled with the weight of the 

 rider, meets directly the action of the hind legs, the 

 source of all propelling power. 



Nor is this mere theory, for every one that has 

 mounted a great variety of horses, and paid even a 

 moderate degree of attention to their different styles of 

 action, will at once recognise here the true reason of 

 the star-gazer appearing to have his fore legs nailed to 

 the ground by the lightest pull on the rein, whilst the 

 croup and the hind legs are flung wildly about, no 

 pressure of the rider's leg being capable of steadying 

 them and keeping the brute straight, either at rest or 

 in motion. Again, who that ever rode one of those 

 long thin -necked, unstable, rainbow quadrupeds that 

 are so apt to dazzle the eye of the uninitated, can ever 

 forget the slipperiness of all its movements, and the 

 painful sensation of being mounted on a machine com- 

 posed of gutta percha and glass 1 all of which, making 

 due allowance for the irritable tempers of such horses, 

 is a necessary consequence of the pull of the reins being 

 in a wrong direction. 



Let us look at cavalry horses. The soldier has one 

 hand for the reins and the other for his weapon : his 

 efficiency depends altogether on his being able to use 

 the latter with precision and rapiditj r ; and this is an 

 impossibility, unless, to use Sir Charles Napier's words, 

 " the steed watches the edge of the weapon " that is 

 to say, follows the lightest movement of hand and heel 

 instantaneously, as it were intuitively. The Minister 

 of War of a certain German State once represented to 

 his sovereign that it would be necessary to give the 



