ii6 METHODS OF HORSE-CONTROL. 



NOTE. If we use a stirrup leather for fastening up a fore 

 leg, it is perhaps best to buckle it so tightly that the foot 

 remains near the elbow ; then the horse, on trying to free 

 it, cannot strike the foot against and injure the other knee. 



BLINDFOLDING A HORSE. 



After the animal has been secured in the manner described, 

 or after he has been simply haltered, a further step in the 

 process of rendering him helpless may be taken by throwing 

 a rug or other convenient cloth over his head, and then 

 applying the rope-twitch (see page 120). If he be dangerous 

 to approach, the rug may be placed on the end of a long pole, 

 and then brought over his head, or a blindfolding halter 

 may be put on, now, or in the first instance. This appliance 

 is, I believe, of French origin. It consists of an ordinary 

 headstall, with a cloth filling up the space between the 

 cheek-pieces, brow-band, and nose-band, so as to cover the 

 horse's eyes. 



Blindfolding is an efficient means of control with the 

 majority of horses ; although it excites some to offer more 

 vigorous resistance than they would otherwise do. I have 

 never found a horse which would, when blindfolded, at- 

 tempt to kick or strike out on the chance of hitting his man, 

 unless he was touched about the limbs or body ; nor bite, 

 whether touched or not, under similar circumstances. I 

 therefore think that the breaker runs no risk whatsoever in 

 going up to the animal's head when it has thus been tem- 

 porarily deprived of sight, no matter how vicious the horse 

 may be. 



THE HALTER-TWITCH. 



With an ordinary halter, or with the improvised halter 

 which I have shown in Fig. 19, the breaker may apply a 

 modification of the rope-twitch (see page 120), by making 



