230 RESTIVENESS: ITS PREVENTION AND CURE. 



Or if it be a case of attachment to the stable com- 

 panions, then put a rider on one of these, whose busi- 

 ness it will be to keep sometimes alongside of your own 

 horse, at others ahead, or again in the rear, making 

 circuits, riding away and returning the nosebag with 

 oats may be superadded to this method of treatment ; 

 and thus the animal may be got and kept under way 

 constantly, which gives the rider the desired opportun- 

 ity of working it for this is the main object to keep 

 in view. Two or three servants riding together, and 

 thinking only of their own amusement, will teach horses 

 to cling to one another; or one riding the same dull 

 constant round will stupefy a horse into restiveness, of 

 which it may be cured by the above method. 



But if you have an enclosed space of some kind to 

 work in, 25 to 30 yards long, and 15 to 20 wide, it 

 will be much better to use it in the first instance ; and 

 then, when you feel it to be safe, ride out occasionally 

 till the cure is complete. Of course your main object 

 will be to get the horse to go somehow in the first in- 

 stance, and then by degrees in obedience, the means 

 of effecting which have been already pointed out. 



Should the restiveness be traceable to physical de- 

 fects to weakness of the back, loins, hind legs, or to 

 some peculiarity of conformation of the head and neck, 

 as is especially the case with horses that seek to defend 

 themselves by rearing or " bucking " you must adjust 

 your seat very carefully, and sometimes even change 

 your saddle with that view. It is a great mistake in such 

 cases, under the pretext of getting what is called a good 

 firm seat, to rest your whole weight on the horse's loins, 

 by placing yourself at one end of a long saddle, and 

 tucking up your legs with short stirrups at the other 



