HANDS. 



while the whip should be kept, lash down, and in the 

 right or left hand, as may be deemed most fit (see 

 p. 119). Almost all good jockeys put a knot at the 

 extreme end of their reins, the knot being made so 

 that its end points down. This is done to prevent the 

 slack of the rein from flying about. I may remark that 

 it is the present fashion to use a single rein on a 

 snaffle, even with a martingale, in preference to double 

 reins. Edwin Martin tells me that our old jockeys, 

 such as Frank Butler, Flatman, Chifney, etc., would 

 not have thought of riding a race without double reins 

 and a martingale, on a snaffle, and that the two reins 

 give one much more command over the horse than 

 the single one. Although I have always been of this 

 opinion, still I would have hardly dared to have criti- 

 cised the fashionable custom of the single rein, had not 

 Mr. Martin mentioned the subject to me. 



How to Handle the Reins. — Little can be said on the 

 all-important subject of "hands," beyond stating that 

 the touch of the rider's fingers on the reins ought to be 

 as delicate, though at the same time firm, as those of a 

 pianist on the keys of his instrument. Sam Chifney says, 

 you should ride "as if you had a silken rein as fine as 

 a hair, and that you were afraid of breaking it." If the 



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