256 RESTIVENESS: ITS PREVENTION AND CURE. 



ing attentively the horse's movements, and taking care 

 always to preserve his own position, so as to be ready 

 when the moment for action arrives. But the assistant 

 with the whip should meanwhile deliver a few heavy 

 deliberately - aimed blows on the animal's buttocks 

 not striking wildly, but taking care to hit one and 

 the same spot repeatedly, and watching anxiously for 

 the moment when the rearer shows signs of getting 

 tired of standing on its hind legs, and is about to go 

 down. This is the moment at which the last and most 

 effective cut of the whip should be inflicted ; and this, 

 too, is the moment for the trainer to give a short sharp 

 drag on the lounge downwards ; and if the whip has 

 been applied at the right moment, the horse will have 

 been compelled to obey the lounge, the trainer's mastery 

 will have been asserted, and if the horse ever again 

 attempts to rear, during lounging, a very gentle pull 

 of the cavesson on its nose reminds it of its previous 

 defeat, and will probably insure obedience ; if not, the 

 lesson must be repeated in the same manner. 



Should one or the other hind leg appear to be giving 

 way, as often happens, whilst the horse stands erect, 

 the trainer should give a good smart pull on the lounge 

 to the same side, which will throw the animal flat on 

 its side, instead of allowing it to fall on its back, which 

 is always attended with danger. Sometimes, no doubt, 

 a fall of the latter kind will cure the animal for ever ; 

 but it is better, for many reasons, that the horse, hav- 

 ing lost the power of maintaining itself and offering 

 further opposition to the trainer's will, should be com- 

 pelled to take the inevitable fall in the direction he 

 prescribes. 



Most horses, when they do at length consent to bring 



