LONG-REIN DRIVING. 185 



front of him, he can hardly prevent himself, for the greater 

 part of the time, from keeping too heavy a pull on the 

 animal's mouth. The objectionable practice of driving 

 youngsters on foot for miles along a road, as may be seen 

 in full operation at Newmarket and other training resorts, 

 is a fruitful cause of the dead mouths and habit of boring 

 possessed by the majority of racehorses. The animal, 

 to relieve the bars of his mouth from the constant and 

 painful pressure of the mouthpiece, naturally gets his chin 

 into his chest, in order to transfer a portion of the pull of 

 the reins to the crown of his head. Instead of acting in 

 this fashion, the breaker, if he wants to give his pupil a 

 walk on foot, might, after having mouthed and exercised 

 him in the manner I have described, take him out with 

 the crupper leading-rein (see page 195), the use of which 

 contrivance would obviate any risk of spoiling his mouth. 



During the second lesson, which may be given on the 

 afternoon of the day on which the first one was imparted, 

 we may repeat the previous instruction, and then teach the 

 animal to rein back. This is done by bending his head, 

 say, to the left by the left rein, while preventing his hind- 

 quarters, by the pressure of the right rein, from turning 

 round. When we obtain this bend, which will naturally 

 put more weight on the legs of the near side than on those 

 of the off side, we should feel both reins, so as to make 

 him take a step to the rear. He will of course do this, 

 other things being equal, more readily with the more 

 advanced hind leg, than with its fellow, supposing that 

 he is not standing " level." Hence his head in the first 

 instance should be turned to the side of the least advanced 

 hind leg. When we obtain this step, we should turn 

 the horse's head to say, in this case the right by the 

 right rein in order to obtain the next step ; and so on. 

 While working in this way we should try to get the near 



