HOW TO RENDER HORSES OBEDIENT. 283 



wide circle, compel it to go without risking a conflict of 

 authority in which we might probably have the worst 

 of it. Or we may take the same animal into some 

 enclosed space — a riding-school, for instance — where it 

 sees that escape is impossible, and there, after having 

 perhaps first lounged it, get on its back and ride it 

 quietly. Under such circumstances, to attempt to screw 

 it into a particular form, or endeavour to apply school 

 methods directly, would most probably end in a fresh 

 display of insubordination, and we should find ourselves 

 pretty nearly at the end of our tether, and without any 

 further resource. The great thing is to get the horse to 

 go somehow — if only in a walk or a jog-trot, no matter : 

 if we can only get thus far, half the battle is won, and 

 by degrees we get into a good smart regular trot, if we 

 take care to keep out of the corners, and avoid sharp 

 turning. Now the English method, as described above, 

 is precisely that best adapted for getting a horse to cover 

 gTound, and therefore, for the purpose indicated here, 

 it is like getting way on a vessel by means of the head- 

 sail, without which the rudder is perfectly useless ; after 

 a while we can haul aft our sheets till we get a weather- 

 helm and steer any course we please. The English plan 

 is therefore invaluable for getting way on, but to get a 

 weather-helm we must have recourse to 



The Continental or School System. — As the objects 

 this proposes to attain are essentially different from 

 what the majority of English riders aim at, so are also 

 the means employed for the purpose. Whilst the lat- 

 ter demand from each individual horse the greatest 

 jDossible amount of speed on straight lines it is capable 

 of affording — treating the question of wear and tear of 

 the animal's fore legs as a matter of secondary impor- 



