258 RESTIVENESSS : ITS PEEVENTION AND CURE. 



to deal with a rearer ; but the thing can be done, and 

 without much danger, except on pavement or a slippery 

 surface, where it is better not to attempt a contest. 

 When the horse stops with the intention of rearing, it 

 first withdraws its mouth from the action of the reins 

 by getting its head more or less into the position shown 

 by the lower head, fig. 7 ; but when it begins to ele- 

 vate itself on its hind legs, it assumes the exactly op- 

 posite position, shown by the upper head of the same 

 figure, which, of course, equally enables it to defy the 

 action of the mouthpiece. The advice usually given is 

 to slacken the reins altogether; but this is simply "play- 

 ing into the horse's hand," because its object is pre- 

 cisely to defeat the rider's hand, first by slinking away 

 from it, and finally by resisting it openly. Evidently 

 this advice is dictated by the apprehension that the 

 rearing up of the horse, depriving the rider of the usual 

 support of the knees and stirrups, will lead him to seek 

 this in the reins, and so pull the horse over backwards ; 

 and no doubt this will prove correct for the great ma- 

 jority of riders.* But if a man sits to his saddle by his 

 thighs, and has his own body in balance, there need be 

 no such apprehension ; and if he then has only pre- 

 sence of inind sufficient to preserve a feeling with the 

 reins during the time the horse's head is passing from 

 the position shown by the lower to that shown by the 

 upper head, fig. 7, there will be a moment when it 

 will be in the intermediate position (see fig. 6, middle 

 head), and the animal's backbone will then also have 

 assumed an angle, not greater than 45 degrees, with 



* The very fact of the horse ever getting the length of rearing is 

 presumptive evidence of the rider's legs being in the wrong place 

 at the time. 



