192 BREAKING ON FOOT. 



hand, which he might easily do if the breaker were in the 

 saddle is that the breaker can at any moment tell how 

 his pupil is progressing by the feeling of the reins, and can 

 accordingly, with well-grounded confidence, use his own 

 judgment in regulating the amount or the nature of the 

 instruction. I am aware that I am repeating myself in 

 dinning this fact into the ears of my imaginary pupils. The 

 man who, on the contrary, tries to mouth a horse by 

 " tieing him up " by means of side reins, dumb jocke\^s, or 

 pillar reins, must necessarily work, as I have already said, 

 more or less in the dark and by rule of thumb ; for he can- 

 not gauge the progress which his pupil is making, except 

 by trying the animal in saddle or harness. Besides, he 

 commits the two grave faults of working only one end 

 of the body (see page 63), and of endeavouring to " supple " 

 the head and neck of a stationary animal (see page 72). 

 With the long reins we avoid both these errors, and remain 

 in constant touch with our pupil. 



Colonel Wardrop showed me a method he practises of 

 driving horses over jumps with long ropes which pass 

 through the stirrup-irons and rings of the snafHe, and are 

 fixed on tightly to the girths and stirrup-irons on their 

 respective sides (see Fig. 94). This excellent authority on 

 the art of training horses to safely " negotiate " the difficult 

 country met with in Ireland, tells me that he has found 

 this method of great use for teaching horses to collect 

 themselves when coming up to the big banks and ditches 

 which are to be seen in the counties of Kildare, Tipperary 

 and Cork. After the horse has been thoroughly taught the 

 long-rein work according to the system I have described, 

 Colonel Wardrop's plan might be useful for giving him 

 a few practical lessons over the obstacles in question. 



All I know respecting the antiquity of long-rein driving 

 on foot is that Fallen, an Irish breaker, who was an old 



