1 66 HOW TO HOLD THE REINS. 



are being changed from one hand to another, might be suffi- 

 cient for a jockey to lose a race, or for a hunting man to 

 fail to prevent a refusal at a fence. It frequently happens that 

 the rider who adopts this " school " system of holding the reins 

 in both hands, neglects in the hurry of the moment to shorten 

 the off rein at all, and consequently pulls his horse round to 



Fig. 168. Off rein taken up by right hand from position shown in Fig. 167. 



the left, by reason of the near rein being shorter than the off. 

 Another objection to it is that one hand has a different hold 

 on the reins to that which the other hand has. When the 

 reins are held as in Figs. 157 or 158, both hands have exactly 

 the same hold, and the off can be passed into the left or the 

 near into the right in an instant. 



On this subject, Colonel Greenwood, in his excellent book, 

 Hints on Horsemanship, pertinently remarks : " Even our 

 finest two-handed English riders (who in my opinion are the 



