HOW TO BENDER HORSES OBEDIENT. 211 



There are certain forms of restiveness, or rather 

 kinds of tricks, that insubordinate horses try on and 

 succeed with, "because they have never been brought to 

 have a proper leaning on the mouthpiece, of whatever 

 kind that may be. For instance, they will get " in- 

 side " the action of the bridle altogether, so that the 

 rider cannot keep them straight, and they will then turn 

 sharp round and bolt off in another direction. When, 

 therefore, one finds a horse succeed in keeping perma- 

 nently " behind the hand," as it is called, the safest and 

 surest way of bringing it up well to the mouthpiece 

 again is by a few lessons on the lounge after this 

 fashion, aided by judicious demonstrations with the 

 whip, and remembering to use large circles. 



It will be unnecessary to go into the detail of the 

 first backing of the young horse, and of the precau- 

 tions that should be taken to avoid exciting its fear 

 or anger ; and we therefore go on to the method of 

 handling under the rider. The great object all English 

 horse-breakers have in view is, to bring their horses to 

 go straight ahead and cover as much ground as possi- 

 ble ; they never think for a moment of making them 

 handy, in the military sense of the term that is to 

 say, capable of circling to the right or left in all their 

 paces, changing these and their feet without an apparent 

 effort, &c. for nothing of this is required of them. 

 The methods they employ are, it must be said, per- 

 fectly suited to the object they propose to attain, the 

 rider's weight being thrown either directly or indirectly 

 on the horse's forehand, which, as has been shown in 

 the first part of this work, favours progression on 

 straight lines. The saddle is generally for this reason 

 put well forward, the girths coming round the anterior 



