HOW TO RENDER HORSES OBEDIENT. 285 



for both systems contain much that is good and useful 

 for all. 



It is seldom possible for the school-rider to adopt the 

 preliminary education of walking the young horse out 

 on the roads, &c., as is the excellent practice of the 

 English trainer, and therefore the remount is taken at 

 once into the riding-school to be lounged. The loung- 

 ing itself, too, is carried out in a different manner, for 

 it requires one or two assistants at first. One of these 

 carries the whip ; the other, usually the groom, is 

 necessary in the first stages for the purpose of leading 

 the young horse round the circle until it knows what 

 is required of it. The assistant with the whip must 

 understand his business perfectly — his services are 

 most important and indispensable throughout. As a 

 matter of course, during the first lessons, a very wide 

 circle is used, and the snaffle-reins are attached loosely 

 to the rings of the surcingle, the inner one being slightly 

 shorter than the other, as it would otherwise hang slack 

 when the horse bends in the neck and body in circling. 

 The English trainer usually adopts the contrary prac- 

 tice of shortening the outer rein in order to prevent 

 the horse running in towards the centre ; but this 

 object is much better attained through the agency of 

 the assistant with the whip, because the great object 

 especially in the subsequent lessons, is to meet and 

 regulate the length of the stride of the inner hind leg 

 by the inner rein, which however, always must have 

 a sufficient counter-pull in the outer rein — the isolated 

 action of any one rein resulting merely in a change of 

 position of the head, instead of acting on the whole 

 fside of the horse. 



When the horse has become accustomed to circling 



