208 MOUNTED BREAKING. 



hour by the method just described ; nor has any horse, 

 after I have removed the cord, shown the slightest return 

 to unruliness during the subsequent portion of the lesson. 

 The use of the rope-twitch is specially valuable for render- 

 ing a horse steady to mount. The head and tail plan, by 

 producing a powerful moral effect, makes the horse not 

 alone easy to mount, but also quiet to ride. We should 

 not forget to confirm, by repetition, the habit of obedience. 



Mr. Litchwark, who is a New Zealand horse breaker, 

 invented the following admirable method of making a 

 horse stand still when mounted for the first time. Put 

 a hobble with a ring on the off hind pastern, put a loop 

 round the animal's neck with one end of a rope, pass the 

 other end of the rope through the ring on the hobble, draw 

 the horse's off hind leg forward by the rope, and when that 

 hind foot is nearly off the ground, tie the loose end of the 

 rope to the loop. The animal will then be unable to buck, 

 plunge, rear or run away, and can be easily mounted on 

 the near side. After finding that the process of mounting 

 is accompanied by friendly pats on the neck, caressing 

 words and no pain, he will, as a rule, soon " give in." The 

 great secret of obtaining perfect control over a horse is to 

 avoid giving him any chance of " playing up." 



The practice of all the " horse-tamers " whom I have 

 seen, or heard of, using the head and tail method, is, when 

 they suppose the animal to be sufficiently quiet from the 

 effects of this process, to get an assistant to vault on to the 

 horse's back from the side opposite to that to which the 

 head is pulled round by the cord that connects it with the 

 tail. If the cord be unconfined by girth or surcingle, the 

 rider, whether he has or has not a saddle under him, will 

 be placed in the uncomfortable dilemma of being obliged 

 to ride without any grip by having one leg pulled outwards 

 by the cord, or of having the leg imprisoned between the 



