HOW TO RENDER HORSES OBEDIENT. 217 



for both systems contain much that is good and useful 

 for all 



It is seldom possible for the school-rider to adopt the 

 preliminary education of walking the young horse out 

 on the roads, &c., as is the excellent practice of the 

 English trainer, and therefore the remount is taken at 

 once into the riding-school to be lounged. The loung- 

 ing itself, too, is carried out in a different manner, for 

 it requires one or two assistants at first. One of these 

 carries the whip ; the other, usually the groom, is 

 necessary in the first stages for the purpose of leading 

 the young horse round the circle until it knows what 

 is required of it. The assistant with the whip must 

 understand his business perfectly his services are most 

 important and indispensable throughout. As a matter* 

 of course, during the first lessons, a very wide circle is 

 used, and the snaffle -reins are attached loosely to the 

 rings of the surcingle, the inner one being slightly 

 shorter than the other, as it would otherwise hang 

 slack when the horse bends in the neck and body in 

 circling. The English trainer usually adopts the con- 

 trary practice of shortening the outer rein in order to 

 prevent the horse running in towards the centre ; but 

 this object is much better attained through the agency 

 of the assistant with the whip, because the great object, 

 especially in the subsequent lessons, is to meet and 

 regulate the length of the stride of the inner hind leg 

 by the inner rein, which, however, always must have 

 a sufficient counter-pull in the outer rein the isolated 

 action of any one rein resulting merely in a change of 

 position of the head, instead of acting on the whole 

 side of the horse. 



When the horse has become accustomed to circling 



