HOW TO RENDER HORSES OBEDIENT. 281 



as low as the horse's withers will permit, and quite 

 steady— that is to say, without much varying the pull 

 on the reins. Of course a judicious breaker or trainer 

 will endeavour to prevent his horse acquiring a dead 

 hard leaning on the bit, and seek to restrain this 

 within the bounds of a firm decided one. Under the 

 circumstances, however, this is not an easy matter, and 

 is precisely the rock on which so many riders split, 

 who then have recourse to sawing, which frequently 

 becomes the primary invitation to restiveness. 



We may sum up the whole by saying that the Eng- 

 lish method of training young horses consists in doing 

 the whole work on the forehand, leaving the backhand 

 almost totally uncontrolled to perform the simple func- 

 tion of propulsion — for all the trotting and galloping 

 work is done on straight lines ; and there can be no 

 doubt that, where merely go-ahead straightforward 

 work is demanded, this system is perfectly judicious. 

 It is, however, another question, and one already suffi- 

 ciently entered into in previous chapters, w^hether its 

 application be not too one-sided, for all saddle-horses 

 are not required to do this sort of work; and it 

 is positively objectionable in this respect, that it 

 uses up the horse's fore legs with frightful rapidity, 

 and to an extent that none but English purses can 

 endure. 



It is, however, with its bearings on the subject of 

 the prevention and euro of vice that we have here to 

 do. Now there are certain forms of insubordination, 

 or restiveness, in which horses depend on their fore- 

 hand — others again, and by far the greater number, in 

 which they depend on their hind legs — for the pur- 

 pose of defying the rider ; amongst the latter we may 



