HOW TO BENDER HORSES OBEDIENT. 219 



forwards, consequently you must bear it up gradually 

 till this ceases. On the other hand, if you find the 

 horse trotting unequally and irregularly, in something 

 like a mixture of trot and canter in an amble, or if it 

 seems only capable of getting on in a short cramped 

 canter, then you may be equally sure that your reins 

 are too short, and you must immediately ease them all 

 to the state in which they were at the very first lesson, 

 and then try back till you bring out a perfectly clean 

 rhythmic trot; whatever position the horse's head and 

 neck may then have, is the true one, all the pedants in 

 the world notwithstanding. Indeed it is a good plan 

 to finish each lesson and commence the next one with 

 somewhat slack reins. The being too lazy to take the 

 trouble of altering the gear often causes double work, 

 and a horse will bear more pressure, on the whole, with 

 good temper, if you reward it by occasional spells of 

 relaxation. 



It will not be out of place here to remark, that if 

 your horse be weak in the hind quarters or legs that 

 you cannot go so far with the bearing up, in fact you 

 must incline more to the English system ; whereas if it 

 has suffered only in its fore legs, you may carry the 

 process to the utmost extent that is compatible with 

 clean trotting ; and this is precisely the reason why 

 many an English horse, with ruined fore legs, may be 

 rendered capable of doing good and safe service as an 

 officer's charger for many a year, if handled judiciously 

 after this fashion. 



We now come to the period when the young horse 

 has been saddled and backed. The animal will, 

 during the process of lounging, have become accus- 

 tomed to the saddle being placed on the centre of its 



